Sheer Borderline
by Chuluchan
Summary: The same way as unexpected friendship came into life, there may be another unexpected turn outs later. What does it mean and how to survive their frequently very dangerous missions is something that Enterprise s pilot and navigator are yet to find out. Multichapter, completed. Sequel in progress.
1. Chapter 1

Sulu was quite good about girls. He was popular – not that crazy way like Kirk – but he was. He was handsome and outgoing and even though he didn't have any long–term relationship, he was dating someone quite often. And given a choice, he preferred enjoying life with friends now.

Among his friends, Chekov was the best one. Just a thought about him lift Sulu's spirit. With him he could be himself. He could be talking about flight simulations, technical issues, Enterprise, fencing, … actually just pretty much everything and the young Russian would understand and discuss it with him. Of course, not everything was exactly Chekov's field of interest, but God, the seventeen years old boy was a prodigy. He was almost like Spock, his capacities nearly equal to their first officer's in some areas.

Sulu really enjoyed working with Chekov and in no time they were like twins, always came in pair.

What made Sulu worry was Chekov's obvious deep admiration of captain Kirk. It's not like whole crew didn't admire Kirk, because, hell, he definitely deserved it. But no one brought it to such a God-worship.

OK, maybe it didn't make him worry as much as actually it was just bothering him. Chekov was awesome, just the way he was, but still, it couldn't protect Sulu from spikes of envy – or maybe jealousy? – whenever his friend's eyes went wide at some kind of Kirk's unexpected skill revelations.

* * *

Today, there was another poker game with his friends. They were on a shore leave and every member of the crew did his best to enjoy few days freed of any duty. Although the yesterday's drinking party - where he met Uhura - was great, the poker nights were always the best. Well, Chekov was always winning, unless the rare occasion he played with captain, but he enjoyed playing the game with his friends every while anyway. Whatever, Sulu will beat him in virtual reality games, where Sulu's renowned dexterity got a chance.

Sulu was just crossing the Starfleet base grounds to their usual gaming spot. The grounds were sunk in the fuzzy darkness of the big city's night. Sidewalks were illuminated by street lamps that casted vague shadows under Sulu's feet. The sound of steps echoed slightly as he went between blocks of few-floors height office buildings towards the spot, leaving the futuristic high-rise buildings of the base center behind his back. He was nearly there, when the young curly haired Russian boy joined him with a wide bright grin. "Hey. How ar yu?"

Sulu greeted him with a smile. "Prepared?" he replied. As if there was any small chance Chekov could be beaten in poker in an unguarded moment.

They walked along feeling comfortable even when not talking too much as they paced over the rest of a distance to their club room.

"Hey."

"Hi." echoed in greeting as they entered the room. It wasn't much of a club as it was actually a simple conference room used for their game sessions. There was a wide screen at one wall, few cabinets and a big oval table at the center. The table was surrounded by fifteen comfortably looking regular chairs. Not all were occupied by uniform-claded Starfleet officers, the colour of uniform varying from yellow of two in a command line to a majority of four of engineers' red and some blue of two science officers.

"You know and there's this competition then." One yellow-claded fair-haired ensign turned back to his engineer friend to finish what he was talking about previously.

"Really? So the poker competition…" the other man wondered.

"Oh," the ensign casted his eyes upon Chekov as he suddenly remembered something. "Captain Kirk said he'll stop by later in the evening."

Chekov's face lit up in pure happiness, enthusiastically awaiting the game with someone who matched the level of his card games skills. Sulu gave him an exasperated look, that he seemed to notice and moderated his reaction, but didn't stop smiling happily. So they sat at the table with their friends and began to play.

Later in the evening, captain really made an appearance and since Chekov and their captain usually played just two of them alone, most of the friends went looking for another fun or to get some rest, while only two stayed to observe the game. It was always fascinating to watch those two play. Captain's poker games with Chekov weren't that well-known as his chess matches with commander Spock, but that didn't meant they were less challenging.

Sulu knew that this game was beyond him once again, when Kirk and Chekov measured each other across the table, cards in their hands, with an estimating look. He wondered, if he should stay and wait for his friend or just call it a day and withdraw to his base quarters. On one hand, he didn't want to leave his friend, on the other, though, he was too tired to actually follow the game.

In the end, he decided that he's just not in the mood to watch a clash of the titans tonight and left.

When he got into his room, all dark and silent now, he activated the computer to check on some flight schemes he had been working on lately, but he didn't really put his heart into it and somewhat stayed annoyed even when doing things he particularly liked.

An hour and half or so into playing a boring computer game, shooting enemy fighter planes mercilessly, he heard knocking on his door. Chekov didn't wait and entered his room. "Yeah?" Sulu turned his head to the young Russian.

The bright grin that awaited him made Sulu stop sulking. He really couldn't be upset at his friend anymore. Chekov's smile was so warming.

"Yu're still up?" the younger pumped out, looking pleased by the more-likely statement than a question. He sat behind Sulu on his bed. Sulu smiled. "What yu're doin'?" he heard his friend ask an expected question in heavy Russian accent. 'This is gonna be another great night.'

* * *

Sulu was sitting on the edge of one biobed in sickbay of a starship Enterprise . He struggled to suppress a yawn, holding a cup of coffee in one hand and rubbing his red eyes with the other.

"Oh, man." McCoy grumbled. "Look at yourself, you're such a mess. You are almost like Jim," making a pause to eye him with an accusing stare, "never learn to be responsible for your health even one bit."

Sulu waited for the doctor to scan him with his tri-corder for an admission check-up before next mission. After few minutes of concentrated scowling, McCoy rised his head to regard Sulu with an inscrutable look. "Went hunting girls like Jim did last night?"

"No…" Sulu started , noticing Chekov to enter the sickbay, he nodded his head in his direction. "We've worked on a new program for piloting large vessels."

Meeting McCoy's gaze, Chekov smiled sheepishly. "I helped wiz ze nawigation part. It took uz a lot of time." He blinked innocently at McCoy.

"Alright. But you better keep it only during a day next time." McCoy withdrew from his obvious intention to scold them in his usual furious manner.

* * *

At the bridge, the crew was studying data about their new mission. When captain Kirk entered, Spock was looking kind of amused as if he knew something others did not. Which was odd, because Vulcans do not tend to be amused. Simply, they do not show any emotions. But Sulu couldn't help it, it was just a damn feeling, an impression first officer gave him, despite he couldn't name a single hint why to think so. 'Maybe Kirk could' he thought, seeing a cocky grin spreading on captain's face the moment he saw Spock. But well, Kirk was grinning ALL THE TIME.

"Keptin on ze bridge." Chekov announced swiftly.

"Mr. Spock."

"Captain." Captain and first officer regarded themselves as the first one reached to a command chair, flopping down sloppily.

"Mr. Chekov, status?"  
"Aye, sirr. Crew'z aboarrd, suppliez will be lo'ded wizin two hourz. Wee're redy to deparrt in two point fiwe hourz, sirr."

"Good." Captain nodded. "Start with a mission briefing then."

"Aye, sirr."

Their new assignment involved helping a team of scientists landed on a less known planet called Mirena. Federation was on good terms with their sentient inhabitants, who allowed a limited group to explore and research their specific habitat. Mirenans were known as peaceful, less developed race. They were slightly taller, but other than that they had all the features of humans. It would have been difficult to distinguish them, if it wasn't for golden sclera surrounding their pitch black irises and pupils.

Unfortunately, some technical difficulties occurred to the research team. It was expected to be a low risk mission, but since there was also a problem with communication, admiralty thought it to be prudent if rather higher ranking ship saw into it, in case of 'other'difficulties. The planet was quite distant place and it will take them few days to get there.

After few hours of discussing specific details of the mission, navigator's voice broke the mild murmur. "Keptin, ze ship is redy, sirr."

"Set the course." Captain said instead of reply.  
"Course laid in." helmsman responded.

"Warp six. Mr. Sulu,"

"Aye, sir."

"Pinch it."

And Sulu did. Oh, he loved this.


	2. Chapter 2

Enterprise was steady on the orbit of a colorful planet Mirena. On a surface, an emerald green jungle was competing with rusty orange deserts and mountains. Rivers were like blue ribbons scattered across the pattern.

After repeated attempts to regain connection with the ground team turned out to be unsuccessful, they decided to make an investigation group to beam down on the planet's surface.

"Mr. Sulu, Dr. McCoy, you come with me." Captain announced finally.

"Sir," Uhura made him halt the moment he stopped speaking, already on his way to a turbolift.

"If I can express my opinion, I think it would be wise to have me at the beam-down team, since I can communicate with the natives, even though only at a basic level, if it comes to a contact. As you may know, they're barely speaking regular." She looked truly concerned.

Kirk considered it for a while. Then, he turned to his first officer.

"It's a logical reasoning. It would seem to be prudent to conclude lieutenant into the away team."  
Uhura's face warmed at Spock's support.

"OK." Kirk broke it out. "Lieutanant, Mr. Sulu." Then he turned to Vulcan. "Mr. Spock, you have the conn." And so they headed out of the bridge to the transporter room.

* * *

It's been nearly forty minutes since the investigation team beamed down to surface.

"The connection's still failing, sir." A worried ensign at Uhura's place turned to look at commander Spock in askance.

"Mr. Scott iz working on it." Chekov added.

Despite of uncomfortable mood that settled upon all crew on the bridge, Spock stayed calm as ever.

"Mr. Chekov, keep tracking them down. If captain and his team do not find an efficient method of reestablishing a contact with Enterprise within two hours, we will beam them up. However, in order to offer them a possibility of an action, it would be untimely to apply our interference right after they landed." He explained with a solemn voice.

Chekov knew first officer was right, but he couldn't help being nervous.

* * *

Two hours after the beam down, Chekov was practically chewing on his fingertips, trying his best to concentrate on tracking all members of the away team. Everybody except Spock looked tense and worn out.

"Commander Spock to chief engineer. Mr. Scott, what is the progress of reestablishing of our connection to the surface?"

"I'm workin' on it. Must' be somethin' there."

"Understood."

Spock eyes flickered to Chekov. "Mr. Chekov, I need you in a transporter room. Lock on the team and beam them back."

Chekov almost breathed out with relief. He hurried to a transporter room to comply with the orders.

All right, he locked on them and– "Sirr. Wee cannot beam zem up." He reported, eyes wide with disbelief.

"What?! Are you sure?" Instead of Spock's, McCoy's exasperated voice thundered at him.

"I am trying!" Chekov replied anxiously.  
"Prepare the shuttle. Engage a team of five security officers." Spock reacted promptly.  
"I am going to prepare to sickbay for emergency." McCoy huffed. Just before he stepped into a turbolift, a cracking sound of static electricity broke through the loudspeakers.

"–Enterprise. Kirk to Enterprise. Do you hear me?" the sound wasn't clear, but it was obvious from captain's voice that he was anxious.  
"This is Enterprise. Report a status of the team." Spock said without superfluous courtesy.

"Spock. Thanks God." Captain's voice echoed relief. "Can you beam us up?"

"There has been some sort of hindrance in signal when we tried to do so two point thirty five minutes ago." Spock replied matter-of-factly.  
"Ah. Wait, I think I could do something about it." After that, there has been a sound of shuffling and few half-murmured curses later Kirk's voice pierced through again. "Try it now."  
"Mr. Chekov." Spock indicated through a comm as Chekov was already slipping his fingers across the panels.

"Three to beam up." Kirk announced.

Chekov locked on them and– …beamed them. As soon as they started to materialize, Chekov noted something is wrong. Standing on the transport pads, there was captain Kirk and two women. Uhura and – Chekov didn't recognize the other one. 'Wait!' he thought to himself, panicking.

"Where iz Sulu?" he addressed his captain at best attempt to not let the panic leak into his voice. He didn't quite managed.

"He's still there. He's been captured. Try to lock on him and beam him up, too." Captain replied, frowning in worry while coming closer to console by which Chekov stood.

Chekov let his fingers to find appropriate signs as he tried to lock on the missing helmsman. But it didn't work.

"Dammit." Kirk cursed looking over Chekov's shoulder. "We need to go right back."

"Mr. Spock." Captain started to give instructions, while Uhura helped the other shaken woman to the exit. "Meet me at the armory." Kirk continued already rushing into place of their appointment. "To Dr. McCoy. You go with us, so better be there, too."

Chekov calmed enough to stop his hands shaking and followed the captain. When he entered the armory, captain Kirk was already distributing phasers and other weapons to the rest of them. It took him a moment before Chekov gathered enough strength to approach the captain.

"Keptin, I would like to parrtake at ze rescue mission of lieutenant Sulu." He announced honestly.

Kirk halted in his movements, regarding the young navigator with compassionate look.

"Mr. Chekov. I know Sulu's your good friend. He's mine, too. And above all, he is a member of my CREW. But I need you here. You're the one who can beam us up however damned the conditions are. Me and Spock are trained in close combat. And Bones goes, too. Besides, I am also taking some security officers with us." He said reassuringly. "I need you to look after the Enterprise."

Chekov would be delighted by the trust given to him by his captain, if it wasn't for the unfortunate circumstance. He kind of sunk in, but followed the rescue team to the transporter room obediently. There was already another officer at the control panel.

"Mr. Scott, wait for us in the transporter room. Mr. Chekov. You have the conn." Kirk told him just as they shifted to transport pads. "Energize."

* * *

And there he was, left on the Enterprise, actually in charge of it's command. He couldn't lose it now. He collected himself within a minute and walked his way to the bridge.

He sat into the command chair hesitantly. But when he spoke next, his expression and voice were steady.

"All sensorz on ze alerrt mode. Spot on a rescue team's witalz. A deep scan of ze planet's surfes in a range of fifty milez wiz Starfleet baze being a cinter. An emerrgency unit frrom sickbay to a trransporter room." He decided.

The crew, slightly taken aback by the ensign sitting in the command chair, finally regained their senses and started to work with all the professionalism at the task.

After a while Uhura showed up and Chekov felt a bit better, very eager to listen to what she had to tell him.

"What haeppen'd?" he asked her just as she came to stand next to him.

"There was some kind of… misunderstanding." She started hesitantly. She met him with her chocolate-brown eyes. "At first, when we reached the station, it was abandoned. It didn't show any signs of a fight, though. So we went on with our research, realizing the comms were out only when we wanted to report on the odd situation. When captain led us to a technical compartment, there was a mess in one of the offices we went by. Papers were scattered all over the place, file cabinet turned over and some glass supplies broken. But that was it. As we went on, we have found some traces of phaser blasts around the doors. Still, nobody's there. Sulu was scanning everything with his tri-corder, but nothing showed what might had happened. Then we reached the transmitter room and found a woman locked in there. She was one of the scientists, she was scared, but lucky to have a replicator within the closed area. From her we got to know what it was that happened there before." Uhura paused, glancing away only for a moment before she continued. "Well, let's leave that out for now. Captain was busy with resetting the transmitter, which was obviously fiddled with by someone before. Meanwhile, Lenora – the scientist we've found – went out with Sulu to look for a particular item that might have helped us to save the rest of the base personnel. It seems they were waiting for a weak moment and they struck. I rushed out as soon as I heard the rumble. I haven't seen it all, but as Lenora told me later, they captured her first. Sulu blasted them off with a phaser. As he shielded Lenora and was moving back, they managed to knock his phaser out of his hand and attacked anew. They had some kind of ancient weapons, long ones with blades on either side - quite frightening as they were. Luckily, Sulu managed to get one of those. And by the time I reached Lenora and drag her back into the transmitter room, he made things really hot for the intruders. But then he got a blast from a phaser." She revealed uneasily. Chekov's face turned white by those words.

"They must've somewhat got a hold of it during the fight. Thank God, they didn't know how to set it from stun to kill." With those words Uhura made another pause. Chekov watched her breathlessly. "So they stunned him. Captain stormed out, but it was too late and there were too many of them. We saw them dragging him away and barely managed it into the relative safety of the transmitter." Her tone changed to be more personal, trying to make him understand, as she said: "I had to drag Kirk in. I bet, he wouldn't let go, if he didn't get a big punch right into his ribs, that actually brought him down in. I shut the door in the last second." Chekov nodded slightly and she added "Lenora thinks they brought Sulu to the place where they hold the rest of the captured.", feeling sorry at that.

"Oh, grreit." The commanding ensign sighed with a heavy accent, irony filling his voice.

* * *

Since there was really nothing much he could do, Chekov was at least trying to lock on Sulu, so they could add his vitals to monitoring of the rest of the crew down on a planet after Uhura took over a charge of it and pulled the vitals up, when a familiar voice broke in.

"Enterprise. Spock to Enterprise. Prepare a facilitation of an additional crew. Fifty two people to beam up."

Chekov's eyes widened in surprise and he could hear sights of relief around him. "Aye, ssir." He replied. "And Sulu… Hawe yu Sulu?" he asked with a thin voice, his heart sunk in a stomach.

"Yes, we do." Spock replied emotionlessly.

Vulcans never lies. With that thought Chekov gave out all necessary commands to prepare the ship for the newcomers and made his way to the transporter room again. It felt like if a piece of ice in his guts finally started to melt.

He checked personally at the control console to make sure there are no interferences with a beaming frequency and waited.

The chief engineer had made his way to the transporter room as well. Now he was standing behind the transporter control panel.

"Scotty, do you hear me?" captain Kirk's voice popped up once again.

"You bet on that I do." The engineer replied in his specific way, ignoring regulations by refusing to call his captain "sir".  
"Then beam us up and out of here. Start with me, Bones and Sulu. Spock and security officers go last."

"Copy that. Energizing."

The moment they appeared at the transporter, Chekov gasped at the view. Sulu was conscious, but badly beaten up, hanging between McCoy and Kirk. As soon as they stepped out of pads, McCoy gently placed Sulu on already prepared stretcher and led them right to the sickbay, surrounded by emergency unit medical staff. As they passed by shocked Chekov, Sulu tried to grin a bit, saying "Hey, man."

"Welkom beck." Chekov chocked at his own words.


	3. Chapter 3

"Alright. I need to fill in a report." McCoy told Chekov tiredly. "When he wakes up, tell me." With those words the doctor turned and left Chekov in a private sickbay room with Sulu. From the time Sulu was accepted to a sickbay, everybody from a prime shift at a bridge stopped by, among whom captain Kirk and Uhura came more times, whenever their busy schedules allowed them to. And many others were concerned with their helmsman's health, too, but McCoy kept the number of visitors down. Now it has been an early morning of a following day and the only one sitting next to Sulu's biobed was helmsman's best friend Chekov.

Even though doctor McCoy said that Sulu's all right and just needs some rest, Chekov couldn't help it but to be scared at how silently unanimously his friend lied, his skin still marked with numerous bruises and with special bandages around his chest, shoulder and thigh. Doctor said he should wake up soon, but that was like two hours ago… Chekov's chest tightened. "Hikaru." He whispered softly, desperately.

"Hikaru?" Sulu thought to himself, confused as he was regaining consciousness. Anybody haven't called him by that name since… like twenty years ago. Well, at least anybody else than his parents and his younger sisters.

He blink-opened his eyes and in the bright light of sickbay ceiling he saw blue eyed curly haired Russian grinning at him. "Good morning, Sulu." The younger man regarded him with his usual light merry tone. Sulu narrowed his eyes to protect them from the light and frowned slightly as different parts of his body started to fight their way into his consciousness.

"Yu're all rright?" Chekov asked concernedly seeing the pain in Sulu's face.

"Yes." Sulu guessed.

"Keptin sawed yu." Chekov noted with some strange pitch to his voice.

'Yes, he did.' Sulu thought and however Chekov's tone at the statement was bothering him, he smiled a little.

* * *

Later that day, when Chekov was still on the shift, Uhura dropped by.

"Lieutenant Sulu, how are feeling?" She asked with a warm expression.

"Have had been better." Sulu grimaced. "But it's not that bad at all now." He smiled.

"You better get in shape quickly. So that we can make Chekov to be occupied again. It starts to be really annoying the way he keeps talking about you all the time." Uhura said suggestively.

"Ah, how Kirk saved me." Sulu implied.

"No. He talks about YOU." Uhura corrected him. "He spoke to the scientific base's crew. They told us about the way you managed to trick the captors, when you regained your consciousness from the phaser stun and how you freed the scientists, commanded them so that they opened the entrance gate for a rescue team and how you fought back before the natives took you down again." She paused. "Nice work." She added supportively. Sulu's face colored with a faint flush.

* * *

Even though he was beaten properly, by the evening Sulu found his stay at the sickbay utterly boring. Unfortunately, McCoy wouldn't let him leave yet. Therefore, he was feeling unexpectedly happy and relieved once Chekov and captain Kirk came in.

"We thought you could join us for a game tonight." Captain said at ease as he pulled out a deck of cards and flop them in hands with his light grace of movements.

Sulu switched his look to Chekov, who grinned even wider than usually, he's eyes practically sparkling.

"I'd love to." Sulu replied sincerely, looking back at the captain.

* * *

They parted later in the night, all in good mood, Sulu trying not to laugh at the other two men' notes as it still hurt him badly.

"I'm expecting you on the bridge for tomorrow's morning briefing." Captain announced. He looked over at McCoy significantly. The doctor scowled and opposed immediately.

"Jim, it won't be wise to make Sulu– " Kirk interrupted him with a raised hand.

"You said it yourself, Bones. That he's got very lucky with all the injuries and that he's actually quite capable of fulfilling his duties as a helmsman." McCoy rolled his eyes.

"As if I tell you something next time." He growled.

* * *

Next morning, Sulu had to pay attention to every move as he sat down to his seat, but was immensely happy that he was back on the bridge.

"Hey, good job down there. We heard from Chekov." He received appreciation from one ensign.

"Really. You're unbeatable." another one added in admiration. They fell silent, when captain entered the bridge.

"Mr. Spock, give us a summary report on the mission." Captain said sitting in a command chair, he turned to a first officer.

"Starfleet scientific station Navara II was to explore and catalogue natural resources of Mirena planet. As of good relations with local sentient inhabitants, the station did not possess any but a basic armoring, in view of no need of defense was to be expected. Due to unfortunate coincidence, scientific station personnel's research of specific species of local fauna and consecutive lack of understanding in course of communication with original inhabitants of planet Mirena led to a misconception of Starfleet's intentions regarding research means and purpose. That resulted in a display of aggression on a side of the natives. As a sequel of such actions the native inhabitants captured personnel of the station and kept them in the nearby cave complex, where the captives were to be ritually sacrificed in an up-coming religious event. When a science officer Lenora Geran, after being located and secured by Enterprise's exploratory team, pursued her intention of retreating samples, that were – as she suspected – a core of an unexpected behavior of natives, she and lieutenant Sulu came to encounter with a unit of native warriors, which led inevitably into a conflict and thereafter a capture of lieutenant. Meanwhile the rest of the team along with officer Lenora Geran eliminated a malfunction of station transmitter and retreated to Enterprise in order to gain additional weaponry and personnel support. Felicitous actions lieutenant Sulu conducted have brought a significant aid to upcoming arrival of a rescue team, which resulted in a rather uncomplicated deliverance of either lieutenant and station Navara II's personnel." He glanced briefly at Sulu.

'Was that a compliment?' Sulu realized raptly.

"Currently," Spock continued. "station's personnel are hosted at a starship Enterprise as it is the nearest substitutive facility of Starfleet at the time being and via it's command a negotiation with native inhabitants proceeds." He finished with a tilt of head and scrutinizing look at captain, hands clasped at the small of his back.

Captain Kirk nodded slightly. "Lieutenant Uhura, report on the progress of negotiations." He waved with his hand in a spur before he stuck his chin onto the heel of his hand, resting the elbow on armrest of a command chair.

Uhura reached for her PADD, checking some information before she started. "As commander Spock indicated, all the rivalry originated in careless choice of subject of scientific study from our side and next in misunderstanding od Starfleet intentions from side of the natives. The subject of a study was chuglug – a rare animal of appearance reminding terrestrial lizards. Mirenans believe the species being sacred, a gift from their gods, that's supposed to bring luck and heal illnesses. After Mirenans first attempt to express their attitude to the creature and its importance , that wasn't fully understood by person in charge of communication with natives, the scientists tried to explain that they only wanted to observe and study the animal with no intended harm to it. Though, Mirenans' language is peculiar and so Mirenans got an impression that Starfleet means a thread to chuglugs – that the scientists would EVEN harm them as it is so special creature that's believed to possess a healing capability. In short, that Starfleet would do ANYTHING to get the best use of the sacred animal. As these misunderstandings are being cleared by interference of Enterprise's crew, we may hope in reestablishment of friendly relations and return of Navara's researchers to their station. We also would suggest an addition of a language expert to the station to prevent incidents like this happen ever again."  
"How long it will take?" captain asked her.

"If there are no more complications, everything should be settled by tomorrow." Uhura replied.

"Then, you're free to attend to negotiation for assistance." Captain dismissed her. As she left, Kirk turned to Spock. "Well… Mr. Spock, some non-urgent matters we still have to deal with? I guess, the don't need me at negotiation for the details."

* * *

Just half an hour before the end of a shift Uhura came back smiling.

"Captain?" she waited until Kirk nodded an approval that she could speak up. "They agreed. With some regimen changes, Mirenans agreed on reacceptance of Starfleet research team. Return of the scientists is scheduled for tomorrow's morning." Captain nodded his recognition. "And as an expression of gratitude for assisting in negotiation and finding new point at which Starfleet science officers and Mirenans could be profitable to each other, they invited us to their sacred place. It's supposed to be something like so-called Eldorado. This valley is their most treasured thing. They haven't revealed its existence before in fear of its safety, since they were not sure if they can trust the newcomers to that extent."

Kirk lifted his eyebrow in amusement. "Well, then I am looking forward to seeing it." He said with a delighted tone of his voice.

* * *

"Hey, what yu think of ze walley?" Chekov asked enthusiastically as he followed Sulu from sickbay to his quarters.

"I think it may be pretty interesting." Sulu replied.

"How can such a pleiz be looking like? A sacred pleiz… 'Must be looking like in Russia." Chekov continued dreamily, teasing Sulu a little. "Want yu go for a dinnerr?" he asked already setting off in a direction of a mess hall.

"Not really." Sulu replied slowly. "The day at the bridge was good, but I'm fairly tired now."

"Ow, but ze repliketors in a mess hall are progremmed a way betterr zan ze ones in person'l quatterrz. I will go and bring somezing for yu. What yu want?" Chekov aksed, presuming Sulu has to be hungry after whole day.

"Pizza?"

"Alrright. Pizza zen." Chekov grinned and left in a direction of the nearest catering facility.

Sulu managed to get himself into a shower, lengthily taking off a uniform and getting back in regular blacks afterwards, his whole body still stiff and hurting. Not long after he settled down in a chair at small table, which was a part of simple facility of his quarters, Chekov showed up with a large plate of the best California pizza.

While they ate, they chatted chirpily, even though Sulu did so in somewhat tired fashion. Sulu didn't ate all that much, so it was up to Chekov to finish the rest of the pizza. Sulu raised and was about to lay himself onto the bed. His face bore a worried expression as he considered the best possible way how to lie down without hurting much and so that he could sleep at least a bit comfortably. 'I should have asked McCoy for another hypo.' it occurred to him.

As Chekov observed his friend, he put aside the rest of the pizza piece he was just eating and hurried up with a suggestion. "Let me brring yu anozer pillow."

Sulu looked up at him as he sat on the bed indecisively.

"I had brok'n rribs when I waz twelwe." Chekov explained. "Weit, I will be rright back."

For his own quarters were near, Chekov grabbed his pillow and brought it over to Sulu.

"You could have replicated it." Sulu pointed out.

"Ah, you need to rrest now. I will repliket some mys'lf laeterr." Chekov said encouragingly, settling the pillow behind Sulu's back as he lay down gingerly. "Well, good nite." He parted with Sulu hesitantly.

"Good night. And thanks." Sulu smiled frankly.

When Chekov left and lights were moderated to a night mode, Sulu sighed and was about to let himself into a sleep, turning his head rested on a double pillow. Breathing in, he took in an unfamiliar scent. It took him a moment of confusion before he realized it is Chekov's pillow at the top. He indeed brought his own pillow. Sulu smirked at cute naivety of the way his friend expressed his concern. The scent… was strange. Not unpleasant in a way, but the knowledge of it being nor Sulu's own or a girl he just slept with was strange – unusual. Not bad, though. It was somewhat comforting – a sign of care of a friend who held him dear. With this notion Sulu finally sunk in the world of dreams.

* * *

**I know I haven't said this before. This is the first fanfiction I've ever written. So, thanks for reading. It's complete, you don't have to worry. But still, if you leave some comment, I'd be really glad. Knowing it's actually worth to read, I'll try to get more time for sequel. Any kind of support will be appreciated ;-)**


	4. Chapter 4

There was a load of work to do arranging a resettlement of the scientific station stuff, but luckily Sulu was left out of it as captain Kirk promised to Enterprise chief medical officer to not overstretch helmsman's powers. Since Scotty volunteered to stay aboard Enterprise, the rest of prime command got to see this wonder their hosts were talking about.

There were too many people to beam down without unnecessary waste of energy, so they used shuttles to get the people down to a surface. They landed not too far from a cave complex, which was still stirring up unpleasant memories. Then, they were led to a narrow pass meandering through high cliffs covered by subtle green trees and airy vegetation, both creating a drapery above their heads.

Inhabitants of Mirena really were tall – Chekov came to this conclusion while looking up at the welcome committee, all members a half head taller than the tall Vulcan officer. They wore leather clothes suitable for combat, some parts fortified with ornamental metal compounds. Mirenans didn't look particularly belligerent, though.

The pass was not only very narrow, but also long and just before they started to be nervous if this gorge ever ends, they were introduced into a door opening to a tunnel in one of the rock walls. The tunnel was narrow too, barely for two persons to pass by at one time, but it was quite short and soon they found themselves in a comfortably looking place that reminded them more of a lounge than of any kind of temple, even though that was the case. The cold stone of tunnel was replaced by artificial walls, there were rich ornamental carpets on floors and as they moved from one room to other through heavy colorful cloth curtains in place of doors, they saw fine metallic sculptures in alcoves.

The last carpet-like cloth, once pushed aside by the hand of their guide, let a bright sun light in the room. When they passed it, there was nothing that would prepare them for what they came to see. It was nothing like a jungle with tarnished golden temples one would imagine when speaking of Eldorado. They stood on a terrace that jutted out from the temple, positioned high above the hillside below. Behind their back, glorious walls of a temple were climbing up a rock wall on top end of the valley, which have opened before them. Only few meters from the edge of a terrace, there was a natural bridge crossing the rapidly lowering slope. The top of the bridge was covered with glittering sand that ranged in all imaginable colors, scattered to patches, one color diffusing into another as the differently colored areas merged. Behind the bridge, valley itself was cradled between dark cliffs, which were ornate with trees. Below, wild flower meadows spread and on the bottom of valley grass met a heavenly blue lake which was mirroring those few clouds that smeared the sky only a shade paler than the Earth one. Everything below the bridge, except the bright pure waters of lake was covered in a colorful dust. Every time a mild breeze stroked tops of flowers, a small amount of a dust was blown up from their surface and created a mist of sparkling rainbow. It was so peaceful and so beautiful.

Their companion turned away from the view to captain and his crew and waited politely, letting the guests to take their time to embrace the astounding scenery.

"I would like to invite you to a drink of galari. It is a traditional potion we like to enjoy by the view." The leader formulated carefully.

Captain Kirk, who paid all his attention to the man, nodded.

We will be delighted to join you for the drink." He said in a dignified manner.

The man before him indicated to small octagonal tables. They sat down in groups of threes and fours. Monks in simple gray and brown clothes brought small round cups with thick walls, resembling small natural stone wells, and filled them with warm green-brown liquid from long carafes in shapes of blossoms. While their guide and other Mirenans they have met before wore a kind of helmet mask that hided left part of their faces, the pattern of web with thorns, the monks were bare-headed, including both males and females. That only enhanced their extraordinary black and gold eyes of Mirenans.

Meanwhile commander Spock seemed to quite enjoy the drink, captain evidently tried his best to not make a face and sipped from his cup politely, squinting around.

"You can also see the bridge up close." The natives' representative invited them. Captain's face as well as few others' faces lit up in interest. McCoy grumbled some excuse, staying with Uhura, who discussed various things with their hosts, improving her language skills thereby.

Kirk already got up, expectation clear in his eyes, Spock at his heels with unconcerned expression. It didn't take long for Sulu and Chekov to join them. Their guide looked over their group and once he considered it to be complete, he led them back the way they came.

Once they were through a tunnel and found themselves back in a narrow rocky passage, they followed the man to even narrower part, in opposite direction than they came in. And behind two turns the valley opened before them again. They were just on the beginning of the bridge. It was quite narrow, about two and half meters in average, slightly wider only at parts passing to cliffs on both sides.

"The bridge is from the same material as all stones in this valley." The guide made an all-embracing gesture. "It is because the bridge was used as a part of a route that you can see the rock on its top to be changed into sand." He explained, his words giving an impression of memorized text. Before he made a first step to a sandy cover of the bridge, he warned them. "It is because of its slippery surface we abandoned using the bridge for as a part of route for travelling. It used to be a place of frequent incidents. Therefore, be very careful while you are moving there."

They did. Still, it was as experience filling them with mixture of feelings – incredibility, happiness and awe. Their feet made fine smears of two or more colors in the sand. Kirk and Spock were enjoying an unrestricted view of the high spot, whereas Sulu got on his knee, taking a grasp full of sparkling sand. He let it flow through his fingers, eyes animated with excitement. Chekov smiled at him as he observed him closely. "It's wonderful." Sulu said enthusiastically. Chekov also crouched and flew his fingers over a ground, leaving thin two-colored lines in the sand below his feet.

"What is that?" Kirk asked, pointing to triangle-shaped constructions, about five meters at length, which were resting on the other side of the bridge.

"We use those for sliding on air currents." The elder man from Mirena replied as Sulu and Chekov got back on their feet.

"Could we…" Kirk blurted out, stopping himself to reformulate his wish. "Would it be possible to get an introduction to its use with a practical demonstration?" he expressed himself ponderously. "You would like to fly those?" Mirenan ensured himself with raised eyebrow.

"Yes. If we could…" Kirk replied innocently.

Spock turned to a captain with interest. "Captain, I could hardly believe that this activity would be profitable for our mission."  
"You be-lieve?" Kirk asked first officer with an amused look.

"I merely used a human idiom to make it easier for you to understand." Spock explained stoically.

"Ah, thank you, commander." Kirk crooked his mouth.

"I do not see any reason why you could not." The man said finally. "The best conditions are in the evening, when heated air is rising from surrounding cliffs." He elaborated. "There are three sliders available now. One will be used by one of our people. I presume you personally would like to partake and then" the man looked from captain to the commander with unspoken question.

"I have to decline." Spock said without hesitation. "However, if you could provide a small quantity of local rock as material for wider research, it would be indeed appreciated. It is highly… interesting." Vulcan tilted his head slightly.

"I understand." Mirenan smiled. Then he turned to the rest two men.

"I believe lieutenant Sulu would surely enjoy the flight lesson." Kirk commented over his shoulder.

Chekov was about to ask Sulu, if, unlike captain, he haven't changed his preferences from the time he nearly died speeding down to surface of Vulcan after he lost his parachute. 'Evidently not', he thought as he saw a barely tamed energy in Sulu's eyes.

When they were leaving few hours later, everybody got a small vial of colorful sand as a keepsake, commander Spock was holding a full box of sand and stones given to a science department of Enterprise. He was not showing any difficulties carrying a weight of item that two men had to bring in, sweating while doing so.

* * *

By the evening everything was transported and settled down. Captain and helmsman were readying to beam down for the sliding lesson. Chief medical officer wanted to join the group, insisting it's too dangerous to make the slide, but when he was confronted with a fact that the starting point is the bridge high above the valley, he backed off from his intention to accompany his captain and friend.

After he let go of some steam of his fury, he glanced to Chekov standing nearby. "You better watch over them properly."

Chekov joined Kirk and Sulu at the transport pads. "Energize." The silhouettes disappeared in sparkling energy of dematerialization.

The air was really hotter than before. As they stood on the bridge, looking at rich orange sky and its reflection in water, sand beneath their feet turned into a liquid gold at some angle of light and the hot air streamed up around them.

"You use these straps to fasten up." The young male monk was lecturing Sulu and Kirk. They followed his instructions with interest. He showed them how to manipulate the construction in hot air currents, explained how to search them and pointed out what they should watch out for.

When everything was clear and they checked their fastening and all the straps of construction control, they lined up at the edge of the bridge. Even though Chekov shared doctor McCoy's opinion and considered this dangerous, he trusted Sulu's and captain skills. Yet, he didn't save them an incisive comment. "Be carref'l. I am not beaming yu up zis time."

"Don't worry." Sulu replied flippantly, but there was a hint of frank concern in his look as he smiled reassuringly.

The monk jumped off first, copying the shape of the slope. Kirk and Sulu didn't wait and follow the young man closely, jumping one after another of the bridge themselves. The shower of glittering dust followed them, tracing their moves as stardust left by a comet.

In first split second, their fall was too steep and Chekov's heart jumped at it, but then, with an experience of somebody doing crazy things way too often, they found the currents and turned the fall into graceful sliding, eventually joining the first wing in rising up on the hot currents on the sides of valley and diving back at the cooler air above the lake. It was a gorgeous sight. They were like hawks, reveling in an orange and gold light of a sunset, rising and descending in variety of spirals, wings still marked with remains of a dust.

It didn't take long and the sun reached a horizon, one of the sliders separated from the rest and slid down to plain grassy area on the lake bank. The other two followed its example. The second went down too fast and ended up in shallow water of the lake. The other's pilot though was more dexterous and made a land practically at the spot.

Chekov saw Sulu – the dark-haired second pilot – to hurry to the one in water to help him with the slider and the blond haired one to shake his head and turn up to the bridge, where they started, to wave at Chekov. He smiled and waved back, seeing Sulu turning look at him as well.

They folded the sliders so that they could be delivered back to a departure point later. By the time they were done and returned to the temple, the rapidly fading sky turned into a starry night. Standing on a temple terrace, they enjoyed a view. All the colors vanished and were replaced by softly shining silver of myriad reflection micro-facets of sand grains. Everything covered by it was glinting in the light of stars. The night sky itself was blazing with a strip of Milky Way, much brighter when seen from relatively not illuminated planet of Mirena, stars accompanied by a big ring-encircled moon.

"It's so wonderful." Sulu noted for the second time that day.

"Captain Kirk to Enterprise." Kirk looked at the monk, who stood silently beside them. He regarded him with one last slow nod before saying: "Beam us up, Scotty." Their figures vanished in beaming light of dematerialization, the night air left empty at place where they stood just a moment ago. The monk took in a breath and turned his look towards the sky, where a little glint revealed where the Enterprise was.


	5. Chapter 5

Mission successfully completed, Enterprise was back on its way to Earth. Beside some geological samples for science section they have gained even one small chuglug – the animal that started this all. They found it strayed in one of the shuttle crafts when they returned to Enterprise. They contacted natives and wanted to return it, but natives told them they can just have it as long as they take good care of it and don't hurt it.

* * *

"What iz it zat wee do tomorrow?" Chekov asked casually, back in the San Francisco Starfleet base quarters.

"Actually, I am going to visit my parents." Sulu admitted, noting Chekov went a bit limp, if not disappointed, on that statement.

"Would you like to go with me?" Sulu asked suddenly.

Chekov blinked in surprise. "Reelly?" he gave Sulu an uncertain look.

"Yeah, sure. My mum makes the best ramen ever, you will like it." Sulu smiled blatantly.

"Oh, zat will be greit!" Chekov exclaimed excitedly, wide grin spreading on his lips.

* * *

"Father has some errands and he had to settle few things in a harbor. He will come in the evening." Sulu's mother said after they put of their shoes, entering Sulu's parents' flat. Mrs. Sulu was a decent lady in her sixties, black hair tied up into bun strained with grey. Wrinkles copied a smile in face that once surely has been a one of a beautiful woman's. "Come on and let's sit down together." She led them to a kitchen. Sulu was moving around with an easiness of being home, even though it's been already few years since he left - entering Starfleet academy and then joining Starfleet, where he had his own quarters on the base.

After greetings and a little talk about how they had been, some questions about their work and speaking about last few missions, Sulu's mother set her eyes on Chekov, studying him for a while with a contentment only people who reached a certain age had possessed.

"Anata no tomodachi wa kakkoi da ne." - 'You friend is handsome, isn't he?' she said in a little teasing but loving tone of a mother. She smiled warmly and addressed Chekov. "Pavel, do you like noodles?" Chekov didn't really had time to think about an awkward face Sulu made on the note in a language he didn't understand.

Mrs. Sulu served a home-made ramen noodles and they enjoyed more conversation, mostly going on with both young men' occupation and interests, taking only a while for Sulu to catch up with the news about his younger sisters. Both of them were currently away – one at Starfleet academy and the second one at university in Los Angeles.

"Pavel, tell me. Does Hikaru have some girlfriend already?" the concern in mother's eyes obvious. Chekov looked over at Sulu, a question in his face. Sulu's was like made of stone. Finding no help about what to answer, Chekov turned back to Mrs. Sulu. He shrugged inwardly and answered honestly. "I don't know about zat."

Evening came and day light turned to dark outside and Sulu and Chekov were about to leave.

"Don't you want to stay over the night?" Sulu's mother suggested with a hope in her voice.

"No, mum. But thank you." Sulu replied.

"Are you sure?" She tried once again.

"Yes. Say 'hi' to dad."

She walked them out, asking Sulu to come more often and ensuring Chekov that he is welcome anytime.

* * *

For the next mission, they hoped to get behind known frontiers and discover new areas of space by themselves, but once again that didn't happen due to a lack of starships that still haven't been fully recovered after Nero's intrusion. So they went to help out Ardanans this time.

At least, along that they got a new prototype of spacecraft fighters, fast and armored with super-modern weapons. And after chief engineer insisting also two specialists to engine room to cover up for an engineer, who suffered a complicated injury while repairing a positioning nozzle and required long-term treatment on Earth.

Captain and Sulu went to check on the new fighters to docking bay. Four bright new ships stood grandiosely on parade. In order to provide it with efficient weapons while keeping them rather small, the room inside them was reduced to accommodate just a pilot.

"Excuse me to say it like this, captain." Sulu turned to Kirk with excitement in his eyes, relishing in the view. "But – hell, I am looking forward to trying out these."

Kirk's smile widened. "Sure. I–" He wanted to reply, when something – or better to say – someone else caught his attention.

"Captain. Lieutenant Valery Anatolievich Kazakov, sir." The tall brown haired young man with a charming smile introduced himself as he left a spot on the edge of hangar and paced measuredly towards the two of them. He reached out a hand to shake.

The other man, who stood there with him, came along as well. Ginger haired, with lot of freckles, he introduced himself. "Ensign Jan Meyer, sir." He inclined his head slightly while shaking his hand with captain and Sulu.

"You are the new engineers working under Mr. Scott. Am I right?" Kirk asked narrowing his eyes inquisitively.

The taller, white-skinned Russian nodded. Kirk smiled amicably.

"I am captain Kirk. Welcome aboard Enterprise." He gestured toward new machines next to them. "What do you think about these?"

"I am not a pilot, sir, but it would be hypocritical to say I am not fascinated to see this new technology as well as overwhelmed by Enterprise. It is so beautiful ship." Kazakov smiled friendly, his voice being an endearing low baritone with a specific intonation of foreigner, but without Chekov's typical mispronunciation.

"They seem to be really well done piece of work." His German college agreed, taking in the view with interest.

"Captain!" the voice of the chief engineer echoed across a huge space of docking bay.

"Mr. Scott." Kirk turned to the incoming technician.

"Oh, here ya are." Mr. Scott shifted his look to two officers in engineering uniforms. "So ya 'redy got introduced to captain. That's good, 'cause I need ya to help me with somethin'." He said, his mind obviously already focused on something else. He halted at his thoughts just to apologize to a captain. "Sorry, captain. I have t'take them with me now."

Both men, who have been required to leave, regarded captain and helmsman with a parting look, polite expression on their faces. The taller one turned to the captain one last time before they left. "I hope to talk to you more, later on, captain."

"Oh, me too." Captain nodded contemplatively. "What about dinner?" he suggested. "Come to a mess hall on deck A in a time of dinner. You can meet other crewmembers and we can talk a bit more. You, too, Mr. Meyer." Captain invited also the other man.

* * *

"He's Russian, too. Isn't that great? You may speak in your mother tongue with him." Sulu talked excitedly to Chekov as they headed towards a mess hall on deck A for a dinner.

"Hm." Chekov smiled slightly and shrugged.

"Besides, he seems to be really brilliant. What you'll have for dinner?" Sulu continued while they entered the mess hall and stopped to search for the group that created around two new engineers.

Suddenly, he felt a tight clutch at back of his shirt. Puzzled, he turned to Chekov and took in his chalk-colored face. It seemed that he wasn't even breathing. He gave Chekov confused look.

"Pavel." Sulu heard a friendly exclamation over his shoulder. Chekov's grip loosened quickly, he let his hand fall along his body limply, but else his posture stayed very stiff.

Russian engineer noticed them and came to greet them, smiling pleasantly.

"We haven't seen each other in quite a while." He addressed Chekov, who's reaction was cut down to nothing-telling stare. A bit gloom one. "Come on and join us." Kazakov hadn't let it bother him, his tone still light and friendly. "I'll be happy to introduce you my colleague as well." He added directly to Chekov and invited them with a gesture of hand to their table. Captain Kirk and commander Spock already observed the conversation, so they hesitantly followed. Sulu wondered if he should have come up with some excuse to save Chekov from evidently uncomfortable situation, but he couldn't think of anything too obvious at the time.

They sat down, Sulu next to Spock, Chekov at the edge. The dinner would be pleasant and entertaining, if it wasn't for an uneasiness Sulu felt when seeing Chekov to – very unlike him – practically not talking at all, except few words he exchanged with a German engineer and some very short answers, when Kazakov spoke to him in Russian. He was staring at a dish of which he almost didn't eat at all. That was really disturbing.

When they were leaving to their quarters, Chekov remained still, shoulders hunched, his eyes on the floor and his look unfocused.

"Who is he?" Sulu asked matter-of-factly.

Chekov glanced at him, his heart still sunk, eyes without energy. "I…" he paused. Knowing it's inevitable, he pushed himself to ask "Can yu go wiz me to my qaurrterz?" plead in his look.

"Sure." Sulu nodded shortly, leaving the rest of the conversation for later.

* * *

After they got into Chekov's place, Chekov slumped to his bed wearily. Sulu took a chair and drag it over so he sat facing his friend closely.

"So?" he prodded, voice gentle but insisting.

Chekov raised his eyes to Sulu and let them fall down to floor again. Forearms propped on his legs, his hands shook slightly. Sulu yearned to reach out and hold them, but he didn't, since the gesture was too familiar even for such close friends as they were.

"Wee know each ozer from univerrzity." Chekov began, his voice steading after he took in a deep breath.

"Valery waz one yeer abowe me. Wee met at one seminer, wherre wee worrked on a prroject togezer." He smirked sarcastically. "He waz a top stuudent. Workin' in stuudentz' consil, beein' at chess, tennis and fencing club, he waz prretty popularr. By zat time I zought I waz reelly lucky I got to be frriendz wiz him." He huffed in disbelieve on his naivety. Next, his expression darkened. "But zen, … somezing haeppend. And he starteed to bully me." Spikes of hatred filled his eyes as he remembered some of his past.

Sulu sighed inwardly, feeling sorry for his friend.

"Did he tell you some nasty things during the dinner?" He asked.

"Not quite. Maybe a bit. Yu would not underrstand." Chekov seemed to be really stressed so Sulu didn't push him for further explanation.


	6. Chapter 6

Next day after an unpleasant meeting with Kazakov, Chekov's eyes were red and soft shade of dark color under his eyes just underlined the evidence of a lack of sleep.

'Oh, boy.' Sulu thought, when he saw his friend like that. Maybe he should have had made Chekov to drink a glass of something strong to help him overcome the shock and bad memories. He made up his mind that he has to do something about that.

In the evening, when Chekov still seemed unnaturally silent, Sulu decided to stick up with the plan and took Chekov to one of the less used rec rooms to have a drink with him.

"But yu don't drrink!" Chekov finally broke through a drowsy state he was drowning in for a whole day.

"Well, sometimes I do." Sulu replied blithely. "And tonight I feel like I'd have some drink. Do you have any objections?"

"No, no, no. Letz go."

Indeed, it wasn't easy to make Chekov not feeling shameful or suspicious as he managed him to drink three glasses of vodka, while Sulu was slowly sipping from only one glass of whiskey. It was true – even though Sulu was a party man, he didn't actually drink alcohol, not more than one beer or so, since his genes simply didn't allowed him to.

When he accompanied a tipsy young navigator to his quarters, he strongly hoped he won't have to do this often, feeling effects of alcohol on his own body. Next time he has to delegate this to some other of Chekov's friends. Too unfortunate, that because all admired Kazakov, it wouldn't have been wise this time.

* * *

Sulu slept like a log and when he got - still all sleepy - to the bridge, to his surprise Chekov was already there. His eyes were the same red, circles around them even darker and also a bit swollen. Sulu knew him well enough to know that those are not consequences of drinking alcohol the previous night. 'No way…' Sulu thought.

* * *

"Mr. Chekov." Doctor McCoy stopped them in the corridor as they were leaving a bridge. "Just for a word." He looked at Sulu, who apparently wasn't about to leave and then turned back to Chekov, deciding for himself, that it probably doesn't matter.

"Captain expressed his concern about your health." McCoy measured Chekov with a frown. "And now I see why." He grumbled.

Sulu gave Chekov a glimpse just to notice his face twich in not fully expressed combination of being uncomfortable and uneasy.

"I better take you to sickbay." Doctor thought aloud.

"He's alright, doctor." Sulu intervened. "We just overdid it with drinking last night." He tried to sound convincingly.

"Still, it would be wise, if you come with me, Mr. Chekov." McCoy insisted.

But Sulu didn't give in. "We're really sorry. I promise you, I'll keep an eye on him." He suggested.

McCoy scrutinized him doubtfully for a moment. Sulu returned his look without falter. Then McCoy just straightened, stretched his face in his 'well, then' and left. Chekov squeezed Sulu's arm in silent thank you.

* * *

"What yu're doin' heerr?" Chekov asked as Sulu entered his room later that evening.

"I promised to keep an eye on you, didn't I?" Sulu winked at Chekov. Chekov helplessly sat back on a chair. Sulu joined him, pulling off his PADD and showing it to Chekov.

"And meanwhile I'll be doing so, you can also help me with this." He put the PADD into Chekov's hands.

Chekov studied it for a moment. It was full of mathematical equations connected to one of the projects Sulu was working on over a long period. He raised his eyebrows. Sulu just repaid him with questioning look, throwing his hands up in a 'so, what?' gesture. Chekov returned his attention to the PADD, focusing on the problems before him. In a while he was fully sunk in it, interrupting the flow of his thoughts only to explain particular things to Sulu here and there. It was working, Sulu smiled.

It wasn't long before Chekov's eyelids started to fall, rubbing his tired eyes, he was yawning. Sulu turned to him. "You should get some sleep." He said. "Go on and lie down, I'll leave once I am finished with this part."

Chekov hesitated for a moment, but then he got up and slowly staggered to bed. He lay down, but couldn't stay still. He shifted for a while and then just sat up again. Sulu looked up at him, just as if he suddenly noticed some particular problem and walked over to Chekov giving him the PADD again.

"Look at this. I don't understand it." He pointed to a certain part of the text. Chekov lay back, studying the matter. In a meanwhile, Sulu sat on the ground next to his bed. After a while, Chekov turned to his side, showing Sulu the PADD and explained the meaning. Sulu nodded a comprehension and continued to work, his back rested against the side of Chekov's bed, Chekov peeking over his shoulder. Sulu didn't know how much time passed, but when he glanced up from his work, Chekov was soundly asleep. He stood up and left the room silently.

* * *

Besides problems with sleeping, Chekov was also evading mess halls and other places that have been frequently used by crew and Sulu, taking the hints, joined him for private meals in their quarters. While minimizing a probability of unwanted contact this way, Chekov couldn't avoid it when he was eventually asked to attend to engine room. Knowing what his friend is likely to face there, Sulu excused himself with something urgent he had to discuss with a chief engineer and asked for a permission to leave the bridge as well.

Given the permission he joined an uneasiness broadcasting boy and walked with him to the engine room side by side, shoulder next to shoulder, relieved when he saw Chekov to release some of the tension in his posture, even though it hasn't disappeared fully. When they entered a turbolift, Chekov made himself heard. "What he needz? I reelly don't know." He exclaimed exasperatedly and scowled, feeling wronged. Sulu knew that the questions regarded a chief engineer, who didn't miss Chekov for last few days, apparently using the two new specialists, though Chekov used to be in engine room almost every day. Chekov was annoyed and nervous, but that was still better than scared – like Sulu anticipated – which wasn't like him at all.

When they entered the engine room, they were surprised by Uhura, who strode to them, a worried expression on her face. That worry instantly cleared, when she spotted Chekov.

"Hey, could you help me out?" she asked him with her best pleading look.

'Boy, you're lucky.' Sulu thought partially surprised, partially exasperated on that injustice.

Before Chekov could say anything, she handed out a PADD. "I need to repair this, but Scotty doesn't have time for that." She sighed. "And all the engineers do what HE tells them." She sulked a little. Then she lifted her eyebrows in a hopeful question.

"Oh, yez. I will repeirr zat for yu." Chekov smiled at her sincerely. And Uhura smiled back. The air full of warm affection.

Chekov got a sight of the chief engineer Scott and was about to head out in his direction and Sulu with Uhura were turning to leave, when Kazakov emerged from some hidden place in the engine room and came close to Chekov before he has done more than few steps. "Lieutenant Sulu." He regarded the helmsman on his way, when he noticed him. That was what made Sulu to turn and notice the situation. He stopped and waited, Uhura noting his halt also stopped, waiting for him to move on.

When Valery Anatolievich Kazakov got close to Chekov, who currently froze at the spot, he started to talk to him in Russian, foreign language not quite hiding a disdain in his voice. Sulu could see a slight arrogant smirk on his face, but couldn't see Chekov's to fully complete what was going on. He was so concerned with both men, that he was startled when Uhura, next to him, went suddenly all stiff, then she strode aggressively to the two and snapped a short offensive speech in Russian to the engineer, showing nothing but disgust. She stood protectively, one shoulder before Chekov. As he was listening to her, Kazakov's face betrayed an utter shock and his white skin went slightly red, when realizing his big mistake.

Sulu blinked at that, not quite able to believe his eyes. The tall Russian gave both, Uhura and Chekov an angry look, turned and walked away.

"What did he said?" Sulu asked Uhura as he got to them. Uhura looked at him, opened her mouth, closed it again and shook her head, frowning. She gave a short look to Chekov and then left without a word.

When she was gone, after a moment of silence, Chekov spoke up. "He azked, if I am foolin' girrlz again like I did beforr or if I am hawing a… sexual… inerrcorze… wiz ze guy whom I am alwayz following." Chekov's cheeks were colored with a dark flush, his eyes not capable to meet Sulu's as he squeezed last words of the sentence out of himself.

'With me.' Sulu translated Chekov's words in his own head, also being quite sure Kazakov used different way to say that.

Only after a moment, when Sulu didn't respond, Chekov looked back at him. Sulu reciprocated his look seriously. He didn't need to say anything about how furious he was, the cold deadly look in his eyes clear enough. He glanced in Scotty's direction, asking Chekov if he's alright to stay, and led him to chief engineer.

Scotty looked surprised, but saved them of any comments at how usually cheeky navigator seemed to be not in his skin and at Sulu's dark expression that reminded him Sulu could get really dangerous if he wanted to.

"Mr. Scott, I need to discuss some technical issues connected to a new prototype of fighter ships construction for their program setting. I heard from Uhura that you're busy now, so contact me as soon as you can spare some time." Sulu said, all business. He looked over at Chekov and hesitated for a moment, if he should add something. But he changed his mind, just giving Scotty a 'that's it' nod and then left.

* * *

"So tell me, what is it?" Sulu demanded persistently. Chekov hadn't told him all of it and before he took any action, he needed to know what this was all about first.

He didn't want to repeat the same mistake twice. But there was no other way now, and Sulu deserved to know. Chekov looked sternly at his toes, all blushing again as he replied shyly. "He'z been my firrst lowe." He locked his eyes with Sulu's inquisitively, both fear and defiance in his look. Sulu had a hard time to not the shock let show at his face, focused on breathing evenly and repaying the look steadily.

"I knew you haven't really been into girls." He started hesitantly, diverting his look briefly. "I just didn't know you haven't been into girls at all." He explained softly.

He noticed Chekov was holding breath as he took in air quickly to blurt out: "Arre yu mad?" That's what he asked, but meant 'because I haven't told you before', 'because you're also a man', 'because I'm not what you thought I am' and 'is it disgusting to you?'. Sulu could read those in Chekov's eyes.

"You're my best friend." Sulu said simply, smiling warmly at anxious Chekov and pulled him into a hug.

After another second of insecure tension, Chekov's body relaxed against Sulu's and he reciprocated the hug gratefully. "Yu arre my best frriend, too." He said, still not quite believing his luck.

After a longer while they pulled away without haste. Sulu gave Chekov a scrutinizing look.

"So… That's why you know so much about fencing, even though you've never done it yourself?" he asked.

"And zat iz why I prreferr playing pokerr razet zan chess." Chekov agreed with ironical smirk.

"And… why you never told me about your… sexual preference." Sulu searched for confirmation in Chekov's face. Chekov casted his look away guiltily. Sulu squeezed his arm in reassurance that he's truly not mad at him.


	7. Chapter 7

"Sulu, I CAN'T possibly fire an engineer who's doing his job properly and causes no troubles except having a personal issue with one of the crewmembers." Kirk threw his hands up exasperatedly as he was trying to communicate his sincere concern.

Sulu looked at him all disappointed, pressing his lips into a thin line. "Aye, sir." He said bitterly.

Kirk rolled his eyes. Then, for a while, he contemplated helmsman with a look, before releasing him without any more discussion.

* * *

Sulu went through his current possibilities. Without captain's intervention, there haven't been too many left. He couldn't do anything about Kazakov's position at Enterprise, he could not reveal Kazakov's true nature without risk of hurting Chekov. So what he could do? He will show to everybody that this perfect Russian specialist isn't as perfect as he pretend to be. He will show that to Chekov. Did he still love him? This question was strange, but the answer was… Yeah, he probably did. It surely didn't seem Chekov overcame it fully.

Sulu observed Kazakov carefully, thinking 'He has to have some weak points, something that would make him subdue and stop this crap.' But even after few days of thorough scrutiny, it didn't show Kazakov had any flaw except making one hell out of Chekov's life. Sulu already started to feel clueless and vain. He was just thinking that even if he cannot get rid of Kazakov he definitely wanted to at least punch him into that arrogant face of his, when an idea struck him. Maybe, it wasn't that great, but it could work. He just needs a little bit of help…

He decided to do things his very own way, but to achieve a greater outcome, he had to risk a bit. First, he needed to contact Mark Colbert, Chekov's counterpart in navigation and also Chekov's good friend. Then, the best would be… Well, why not? Uhura was definitely at Chekov's side, too. She should be willing to help as well.

* * *

"I heard you practice with rapier." Kazakov mentioned as he appeared gracefully in the sport hall, where Sulu just finished a fencing practice, stretching his body, skin glossy with sweat. "Would you practice with me?" Kazakov continued in his smooth voice.

"I am sorry, but I'm done for today." Sulu said, picking up a face shield, a lancet – a modern rapier – and small towel he used to wipe sweat from his face. "You can practice with ensign Cartner."

Kazakov looked over at young blond ensign, who has been still practicing thrusts with his lancet, and then back at Sulu. "I'd prefer to practice with somebody of my level." He replied solemnly.

"Got it. So, see you next time." Sulu smiled. Then he paused. "Actually… I heard fencers of your school are pretty good. It's been a while since my last competition. Let's make it a duel. What do you think about it?" Sulu suggested.

"Alright. That should be entertaining." Kazakov agreed.

"So, see you later." Sulu said finally and left to a dressing room.

'Yes!' he thought, when he left Kazakov behind his back. 'Thanks, Colbert.'

* * *

Sulu set up the duel, inviting Mr. Spock to be a referee – first to provide an unbiased judgment, second to make him occupied and to divert his attention from other critical points that came along this and that might not be thrilling to a pedant commander. Uhura agreed to be a back up and enable a leak in ship's transmission system. As Sulu expected, she had more guts than people tended to think.

Now he had to get Chekov at the scene. He considered the best way how to do so, discarding one idea after other. In the end, he settled on being straightforward and telling Chekov simply how it was, betting on the ensign's curiosity.

* * *

Just half an hour before the event, Sulu engaged Chekov into a conversation.

"I am having a fencing duel with Kazakov. I am just heading there now. Do you come with me?" Sulu asked, smug smile on his lips.

"What?!" Chekov looked at him all surprised. Then he picked up at the question and answered. "I should be goin' to meet sinz I hawe an eppointmen' wiz him."

"You really want to miss this?" Sulu prodded.

"No?" Chekov said, his curiosity already overwhelming his sense of responsibility.

* * *

"This is for you." Sulu whispered in his friend's ear so that only he could hear it. Then, without hesitation or a single glance to Chekov's baffled face he turned and as he paced forward to his opponent, he put on a face shield, checking it to fit tidily.

Kazakov watched that intently. "Don't tell me this all is because of that wimpy kid." He smirked sarcastically, full of himself as he nodded to Chekov.

'Come on, you're just three years older!' Sulu thought of the irony, bothered, when he heard this tall young man use a word 'kid' in regard to Enterprise navigator. Outwardly he remained quiet and didn't answer.

"It is?" Kazakov exclaimed with faked incredulity. "Is he still mad because of his girlfriend?"

'What?' already started to formulate at Sulu's lips and he restrained himself only a split second before it actually left them.

"Oh, sorry, his ex-girlfriend. But that wasn't my fault, he was the one to come up with this 'I think I love you' queer bullshit." He parodied Chekov's words with exaggerated drama.

Sulu's look darkened. He didn't know a single thing about that girlfriend, but one thing was clear now – Kazakov knew that Chekov fell for him and that was also probably the reason why he bullied him. Sulu's hatred rose even more.

Kazakov contemplated Sulu's uncertain face before concluding: "No way… It's not about the girl. You fell for him!"

"We're friends. And that's what friends do." Sulu replied deadly serious with accusation in his voice. "I'll kick your ass."

"Fencers, please salute your opponents." Spock's low baritone echoed through the stage. The snow white figures regarded each other with raised lancets, touching opponent's lamé – a jacket for detecting hits – with the lancet's blade.

Standing apart on their starting spots, they took a guard position. Measuring each other over tips of their weapons, they stayed still for couple of moments. Then Sulu suddenly rushed out and attacked with a speed of cobra. They exchanged few thrusts and blocks, only to analyze enemy's skill.

Next time, Valery was the first to attack and he pushed Sulu with his fierce thrusts back, Sulu putting in nothing more than blocks, some of which seemed to be just a good luck than anything else. Still, he managed to block or parry all of Valery's attempts to put him down.

'This is bad.' one could read from the onlookers' expression. Their faces were mostly mournful as they were exchanging quiet comments. But Valery Kazakov wasn't fooled by Sulu's passivity and withdrew soon in order to not waste too much energy on very small chance to break through while Sulu was focused on defense.

Sulu struck with renewed force. Though most of the audience was shocked by such a change and they were letting out excited exclaims expecting Sulu to end up the duel easily, Sulu didn't manage to do so. Spock and one or two other officers, who practiced with Sulu, as well as Chekov remained silent, wholly focused on what was going on between the two men. Unlike others, they knew that modern fencing duels rarely took more than few seconds and were not usually filled with breaks, surely not that many. That meant Sulu and Kazakov were fairly even opponents. Both of them had a chance to win or lose.

In next attack, Kazakov used a fleché thrust – jumping forward as he forced his lancet further. It has slid over Sulu's lancet though and again he haven't got to him. They ended up close, face to face. This close up, Sulu could see Valery to pucker his eyebrows as he was starting to be furious with yet another failed attack.

"I'll make your friends regret they bet their credits on you." Kazakov threatened. He had to hear some of the talks on bets from those standing around.

"You'll do? Then, I should make sure that won't happen, because it's broadcasted to all decks." Sulu replied serenely, using the chance to distract Valery while desperately searching for something to work in his fortune.

"Ah, so let's make it a show worth watching then." Kazakov said cockily. He released Sulu, stepping away and plucked his face shield off to make his face visible clearly and tossed it away.

"Crazy bastard." Sulu mumbled to himself exasperatedly, but took his face shield down as well.

"I have to object." Vulcan's strong voice captured everybody's attention. "It would be highly hazardous to carry out a melee weapons combat without a use of complete protection garment." He stated and his faced showed something that would be scowling, if he was human, emitting his strong disapproval. Both fencers glanced at him. "Also, I demand an explanation of what you meant by the ship-wide broadcast, lieutenant." Sulu just realized that even thought they were far enough to prevent others to overhear their low-voice spoken conversation with Kazakov, that didn't apply for Vulcan ears.

"Commander," Sulu's friend involved himself. "actually, it would be illogical to…" Whatever he said to distract first officer Sulu didn't hear it, he stopped listening and focused on his opponent again.

Kazakov took an offensive posture, holding a lancet above his head, it's tip pointing towards a spot between Sulu's eyes. This tactic was meant to discourage, but Sulu also knew it was not that advantageous, since it took slightly longer time to get a lancet into other positions. This was his chance.

"Let's make a bet ourselves." Sulu exclaimed. Kazakov gave him an amused look in respond. "If I win, " Sulu continued. "if I'll give the first hit, you'll let Chekov be. You'll pay appropriate respect and won't say a single bad word to him or about him ever again."

"And if I win?" Kazakov asked purposefully.

Sulu considered that for a moment before saying: "I'll give you my month's credits." Given Sulu's position of a main officer of the helm, that was quite a lot.

"Do you think I am that cheap?" Kazakov pretended to be shocked, wronged expression stuck on his face.

"Two months' then." Sulu corrected himself.

"Credits are boring." Kazakov shifted. Sulu raised his eyebrows. "If I win, you'll work as my servant for a month." He suggested.

"No." Sulu cut him out right away.

"Well, you wanted the bet…" Kazakov trailed off, shrugging.

"Alright." Sulu gave in after all.

Kazakov got back into his position, weapon above his head, steading his movements as his whole body strengthened. So did Sulu, holding his lancet in front of himself, hands in a waist level.

In a whirl of events that happened within few seconds after that, Kazakov struck, thrusting his armored hand from above his head down and forward with all force of his body, putting the energy of a half turn into his shoulder and arm. Sulu parried. Tilting his head to side, he lunged forward too, Russian's blade sliding only an inch from his neck as he moved. Sulu's hand held a lancet that touched Valery's side, his lamé detecting the hit and signalizing it immediately with a sound. This time, an expression of surprise on Kazakov's face was genuine.

They stood back. Sulu raised his hand, thrusting his lancet in the air above him with a victorious gesture, before he lowered it again rubbing his neck with the other hand. One-handedly he turned the lancet in reverse hold - tip down, and waved on his assistant, who threw him a small towel. Sulu caught it, wiped sweat off his face and hang the towel around his neck, putting down the gloves.

Kazakov stood on the same spot still. "That's it?" he said with a disdain. "No way. I want a rematch."

"Don't have to. Don't want to." Sulu replied cheekily.

"Ooyobische!" with that shout Kazakov threw himself on Sulu. With his free hand he pushed Sulu in the shoulder with such a power that Sulu ended up on a floor. He already made a step forward to point a tip of his lancet to middle of Sulu's chest, but Sulu recovered fast and rolled to the side, he made a somersault and got on his feet with incredible speed, standing up behind Kazakov. Inelegant, he raised his leg and kicked the high and mighty Russian into his butt.

* * *

This was more than Sulu could hope for. Picture of engineering specialist flapping his arms in vain effort to find a lost balance after Sulu dealt him with a kick into his rear end still vivid in their minds, Valery Kazakov lost his respect from most of the crewmembers. Kazakov was the first to start, he desisted from a fair play and moreover he pushed somebody who drew out stronger feelings of solidarity, of belonging to Enterprise, than he did himself. All that stirred up crew's strong sense of rightness. That was a good punishment.

Although, Sulu spared few thoughts in worries about consequences of this impish piece for those who helped him, especially Uhura, it kind of solved itself. Captain was not a one to raise any charge. Sulu just wondered how she made Spock to not take any action either.

Sulu never told anybody about the scratch at the edge of his jaw just under his ear he hidden by his hand and then a towel after he hit Kazakov. If they were still wearing face-shields, that signalized hits as well, things might turn out differently.


	8. Chapter 8

Once being at the orbit of Ardana planet, they were hailed by Ardana's leader High Advisor Plasus. They proceeded with their mission according to Starfleet plans. Captain Kirk was invited for a formal greeting ceremony to Stratos capital – famous anti-gravitational city that floated in the sky. He and Spock beamed down for few hours, making the formalities short because of the urgent situation.

Being the only known source of mineral called zenite gave them certain privileges along with significant wealth. They had few out-post space stations for easier organization of their overflowing market activities. And one of these stations got into troubles. Ardanans made themselves recognized for being a peaceful race and as such, they did not shelter any kind of fleet or armored battle-ships. So when they found out that the space station was taken over, they could only watch and wait.

Enterprise crew was told it was probably doing of Retellians as some business did not end up to their liking. Ardanans traded frequently with Retellians. And while they did so without reservation, they also were aware of Retellians' impulsive nature. All Ardanans wanted was to get things back into order and continue their dealings. As an important partner even for Federation, Ardana was promised a help in form of funny equipped flagship.

Enterprise was on its way to Thalatos space station. In a short time after captain Kirk, commander Spock and doctor McCoy beamed down to station in attempt to solve things without destroying it, they found out it was not Retellians' fault that the station was assaulted, but it was done by Ardanans themselves – exactly by a rebellious group of Troglytes, a lower cast of Ardana social system, who called themselves Disrupters. Captain initial intention to suppress the rebellion decreased as he learned about reasons behind it.

In the end, they were helping Troglytes to gain their rights – to utter discomfort of High Counselor – by a stunt piece of beaming him via Enterprise down to one of zenite mines, where Troglytes worked in a harmful gas, and demonstrating effects of the gas on captain and High Counselor themselves. After that Plasus admitted that City-dwellers – the upper cast – might have been mistaken about their approach to Troglytes.

* * *

They did what they were asked for to do and also what they were not asked to do, but did it anyway and therefore were leaving without prolongation, since, after what happened, captain was no more welcome in the floating city of Stratos.

Even though Sulu was in command of Enterprise for a while, it hasn't been really stressful mission for him, neither it has been for Chekov. Still, it made them occupied enough to forget about Kazakov… almost. But when they were free of their duties, Sulu could see Chekov to shift in evident discomfort. He was much better now, but he wasn't the same as before Kazakov appeared aboard. 'Seems like we'll have to learn to deal with it.' Sulu pondered.

They headed back to Earth. It was another monotone day and Sulu didn't really needed to focus much while doing his work. Idly, he reviewed incoming data.

Suddenly, the engines shut down. And the sirens started to scream. Startled, Sulu checked all the consoles before meeting Chekov's eyes questioningly. They both looked over at captain, who looked at Uhura.

"Yellow alert. An accident in the engine room." She tried to talk above the noise.

"What's that?" Kirk exclaimed exasperatedly. "Connect me to the engine room. And turn off the sound alert."

"Aye, sir. Connected." Uhura spoke into an abrupt silent.

"Mr. Scott? What happened?" Kirk demanded as he was speaking through intercom to chief engineer. He tapped his fingers on the armrest nervously.

"I'm not sure. Gimme a minute." Scotty's answer sounded.

After a short pause he spoke again. "I found it. It'll be fixed right away." And he spoke true. After two very long minutes, the engines were finally started up.

"Everything'alright now?" Kirk continued questioning.

"Yes, captain." Scott reassured him.

"Then come to bridge. I would like to hear in person about what possibly could cause an undamaged flagship's engines to stop all of sudden like this." captain implied.

"Aye." He got Scotty's only slightly annoyed reply. Kirk thought it will be much more annoyed or guilty than this.

In few minutes that where filled with a tense expectation chief engineer entered the bridge.

"Mr. Scott." Kirk started formally before he leaned closer, rested on his elbow propped on command chair's armrest, and picked more casual tone. "Scotty. What the hell happened?" he asked sincerely curious. Only a little bit of actual worry was shown in slight wrinkle on his forehead.

"Before we start, I suggest Mr. Kazakov to join the conversation, captain." Scotty said seriously. Kirk raised his eyebrows, his confusion reforming into 'Well, why not?' quirk of the edge of his mouth.

"He's waitin' outside." Scotty helped.

"Mr. Kazakov, enter the bridge, please."

A door opened and Kazakov stepped in, pale and scowling.

"Captain." He managed to keep his tone formal.

"So, Mr. Scott, start with the explanation already." Kirk slipped to an official speech again.

"As it seemz to me, captain, it was a matter of breach of a protocol." Mr. Scott explained solemnly.

"Why do you think so?" Kirk asked carefully.

"A stability of warp-core nacelles can be disrupted by a malfunction of energy synergizer. The synergizer's not processing only nacelles energetic flow frequency, but frequencies of all engines and positioning jets of the ship. I needed to recalibrate one of the jets, so I asked lieutenant Kazakov to cut it from a synergizer syst'm. As you know, there's a protocol describing all steps of disengagement of any engine or jet from synergizer that – if followed precisely – prevents a lapse of energy to disturb a function of the synergizer. It mandates that a jet should be disengaged _after_ one connects it to a buffering circuit and gives it enough time fo' the energetic flows to compensate. But lieutenant hasn't done so. Usually," Scotty didn't let them react yet, continuing right away. "retrograde power fuse of the jet's connector would not let the energy pulse go thru, but unfortunetly it waz disabled. Usually, it would absorb the lapse, but it might not and that's why there'z a protocol – to prevent a situation like this to ensue." Scott finished, assuming that the problem has to be clear to everyone now. "I am takin' all the responsibility for such action to occur under my command."

Captain Kirk looked genuinely surprised, but when he spoke next he used all professional tone.

"Mr. Kazakov, do you have something to say?" he turned to stone-like still Russian engineer.

"Yes, sir." He cleared his throat. "Even though I didn't follow the protocol _exactly_, it was highly improbable that–" the indignant engineer started to defense himself trying to reformulate 'Come on, nobody really does that!' that was on his mind.

"Something we haven't heard yet?" Kirk interrupted him, a bit condescendingly.

"No, sir." Kazakov said hesitantly with a despise in his voice.

"I presume you are aware of severity of this situation, lieutenant. Although it took only few minutes to restore a function of engines, this would be a fatal error if it occurred during a battle. You breached the ship operation protocol and caused an extended dysfunction of ship system thereby. I have no other choice than to relieve you of your duty aboard Enterprise." Kirk glanced at Spock.

"It would appear so." First officer inclined his head affirmatively.

Kirk took a word again. "Mr. Kazakov, would you remain in your quarters until we reach Starbase 1, where disciplinary procedure will be held. Dismissed." He close it.

Chekov came close to Scotty, when Kazakov left the bridge. "Thank yu." He smiled happily.

Chief engineer shrugged. " I just did what waz best fo' Enterprise."

* * *

When Sulu entered Chekov's quarters, he found Chekov lying on a bed. Streched on his stomach, chin atop his hands and feet in a pillow area, Chekov looked intently at a PADD that was laid before him. Sulu came closer a peak at its content it wonder at what it was that it caught Chekov's attention so profusely.

It was a photo of Chekov and a girl. Sulu crouched down next to the bed to take a closer look. The two of them looked so happy, hugging each other and smiling to camera. Chekov was a bit younger than now, but not too much – maybe fourteen or fifteen, at the picture, facial lines not so sharp yet. His curly hair was longer than his actual Starfleet regular haircut and gave him a rascally drive. He was wearing an old-fashioned leather pilot jacket that was used during World War II. Sulu turned his attention to a girl. First impression she gave him was, that she had to be a very nice person. Her light brown hair were cut short above her shoulders, she had some kind of green hoodie on her, that nicely fitted her warm jolly eyes. Her face radiated a youth spirit, her expression very opened. She was lovely. And so was Chekov. They were like a poster promotion of happy student life. Sulu turned his to Chekov, who replied sooner than he even asked.

"It's Tatyana. Tatyana Gracheva. She waz my girrlfrriend."

After a moment of silence that followed, Sulu brought up another question. "What happened?"

"Wee brroak up." Chekov replied. "I uzed to blame Kazakov, but I am not so surre now. I think he waz rright." He sighed.

Sulu gave him a room to express himself.

"Wee hawe newer meant to be togezer and I hurrt herr. Wee hawen't talk sinze zen."

"Maybe you should try to talk to her again. Many things had changed since then, as it seems to me." Sulu suggested unobtrusively.

Chekov looked up at him for the first time. "Do yu think so?"

"You'll feel better no matter how it'll turn out. Am I not right?" Sulu smiled and blinked at him.

"Yez. I think yu're rright." Sulu indeed knew him well.

* * *

"Next time we meet you have to take him with you!" Sulu's youngest sister Aiko exclaimed excitedly. Sulu looked at her raptured face on the screen disapprovingly. He sat in front of a computer console in his Starfleet base quarters.

"Please! You brought your friend home! You haven't done that since you've been nine." Aiko tried to persuade him.

"You can't even remember that, you were five." He belittled it.

"But Yuki said so! She also said you didn't want to invite your friends because we were around." She scowled at him wronged.

"I did." Sulu protested. "I've been there with Marc, when I was entering the fencing club. And that was when I was fourteen."

"But that was just once and you did it only because we haven't been at home!" Aiko said indignantly.

Sulu not quite rolled his eyes at her. She still stared at him stubbornly. With a resigned sigh he gave in, saying "Alright. Have it your way. I'll take Chekov with me." He promised, his face not really following what he said, his expression a one of defiance.

Aiko was smiling from ear to ear. Then her face softened. She smiled lightly and studied Sulu with her inquiring eyes.

"He's not like the friends you had before, is he?"

Sulu was surprised by such a question, but considered it for a while and answered sincerely.

"No, he's not."

"'thought so." Aiko replied.

Sulu raised his eyebrows on that conclusion.

"Why is hearing that from you so disturbing?" He tilted his head and scowled slightly.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notification: If you like my work, read also "Mind-meld", whi****ch I also post tonight.**

* * *

"Captain, we're receiving a distress signal." Uhura looked up from her console.

"Pull it up and let us know the details." Kirk replied.

"The signal comes from a starship Prudence. According to available data, it's a Constitution-class ship sent on a two month mission at a border of beta quadrant. We are the only other Federation ship in the area, sir."

"Mr. Sulu, change the course towards Prudence."

"Course laid in."

"Maximum warp. Engage."

"Aye, sir."

* * *

It has been twelve days since Enterprise left Earth on its way to Federation space borders. Their mission was to search for life forms on planets nearby a galaxy barrier. The rim was visible from far away, shining pink and red, but only when they dropped out of warp nearby a distressed starship at the edge of it, it overwhelmed them by its magnificence.

"Hail Prudence." Captain gave an order.

Soon the screen revealed an older man, who could look still quite young despite of his grey hair, if it wasn't for a stressful expression he wore. When he saw Kirk, his face brightened and some of the tiredness seemed to flow away.

"This is a captain James T. Kirk, USS Enterprise. We received your distress call." Kirk introduced himself first. "How can we help you?"

"I am Gene Sansburry, a captain of USS Prudence. We are really glad to see you. Our engines are completely off, damaged by a galactic barrier."

Kirk glanced at a technician within his sight range, who nodded his confirmation based on the readings from Enterprise's scans. Then he returned the eye contact back to captain Sansburry.

"So what do you ask of us is to help you fix your engines?" Kirk cleared.

"Yes. We cannot repair them ourselves since the supporting instruments that're needed occur to be also malfunctioning due to same reasons."

"Then, what about other systems? Do they also need to be repaired?" captain Kirk just realized how serious situation Prudence found itself in and his truthful concern was communicated through his bearing.

"Nothing that couldn't wait. We already managed to repair the basic equipment to keep our crew alive. Fortunately, life support system hasn't failed."

Kirk nodded in understanding. "I'll send you as many technical engineers as I can spare. But now, if you would tell us, how this all happened…?" He prodded.

Captain Sansburry told them about their mission and how they got so close to a galactic barrier that it damaged their ship. They were surprised by a Romulan ship and forced to a back out maneuver that got them too close to the rim. All the systems except life support shut down and they were trapped, fully exposed to any action of Romulans. Then, Romulans beamed aboard the ship, searching it through.

"You mean they got an access to all data in a starship computer?" Kirk blinked in horrifying moment of realization.

"All that haven't been shielded by the highest security – yes." Captain Sansburry admitted. After a moment of silence, he said darkly "The self-destruction system failed as well."

So Prudence and its crew were actually saved due to a malfunction of a self-destruction system of the ship. The data Romulans received could endanger all Federation.

"Where are the Romulans now? Why they left you here like this?" A worry crept into Kirk's mind.

"That's a good question. We really don't know. Maybe they got some call and were forced to leave." Sansburry shrugged slightly. "At least it seemed like that to me." He didn't have to point out that Romulans simply didn't have to waste a single blast on them, since it was very unlikely that somebody will find Prudence here, on the edge of known universe, far away from Federations influence and usual occurrence of any ally vessels.

"But let me tell you. These Romulans were strange." Elder captain leaned forward in his command chair.

"Elaborate." Spock inquired, joining the conversation as he stood up by captain's right hand. When he saw Sansburry's slightly raised eyebrow, he swiftly added: "Pardon me, captain. I'm commander Spock, a first officer of USS Enterprise." Then he invited the other man to speak by tilting his head a little.

"They were not like what we learnt about them." Sansburry's eyes scrutinized Spock. "They were arrogant and despotic and they talked about us as of the lower race. But the thing is that they were saying the same things about other Romulans. Also from their speech we figured out they're not doing this on behalf of the Imperium."

"How big do you estimate their crew?" Kirk took a lead again.  
"It's hard to tell." Sansburry shrugged. "We've seen only two of them. And they had those strange shining eyes. It gives me goose bumps just when I remember it."

"How long is it since they left?" Spock got himself involved again.

"One standard day."

"Captain," Spock met Kirk's eyes. "We should not waste our time and proceed with pursuit of the Romulans' vessel immediately."

"Our shields are not functioning." Sansburry noted pointedly.

"Securing data that mean threat for all Federation from the enemy has a priority." Spock said frigidly.

"Spock! They're shields are out! They are not working! We can't simply leave them here." McCoy, who made his way to the bridge before they landed by Prudence, protested angrily.

Captain Kirk closed his eyes, sorting his thoughts for a while. Then, he spoke up. "OK, Enterprise will stay here to cover you." Then he looked up to Spock's face showing a disagreement. "I will send a group of fighter ships to pursue the task of hunting down the Romulan ship." Kirk's look fell back on the main screen. "Though the leak of information can be possibly very dangerous, it's just a possibility. Lives of your crew are at the first place now." He frowned slightly. "Alright, I'll keep you informed of the process. See you in a while."

"Thank you, captain Kirk." The other captain said sincerely. Kirk lowered his eyes in embarrassment for a moment. Then he looked straightly into Sansburry's eyes with sympathy, he knew very well what it meant to be a captain and to have a responsibility for safety of a ship and its crew.

"Kirk out." He cut of the connection.

"Mr. Spock, any recommendations?" he turned to a first officer.

"I suggest you stay aboard Enterprise, captain." Spock's solemn voice sounded a hit-on-spot prediction of captain's thoughts. It looked like Kirk wanted to object, but when he took in a breath and opened his mouth, a split of second spent on thought how to formulate a disagreement, Spock continued before he could say something. "There's no guarantee the Romulan ship shall not return."

"Mr. Sulu," captain turned to a helmsman. "You pick your team and take all the fighter ships."

Sulu got up from his place at helm.

"It's highly risky and it's out of your duties. This is not an order, you can decline without any consequences." Kirk added.

"I understood, sir." Sulu moved in a direction of turbolift.

He stopped in front of the turbolift to hear captain say "Inform me, when you're ready." Sulu saluted. A turbolift doors hissed open, he stepped in it, turned around and the door in front of him closed again to send him to another deck.

"I'll help with preparation of fighter ships and then see if I could help Scotty and his team aboard Prudence." Kirk hated to be left out of action. Rather than waiting at the bridge, he will find himself a way of being useful without leaving his ship too far to be able to get back immediately, if needed. "Mr. Spock, you take the conn. Be careful to not get too close to the galactic rim."

Commander Spock gave him not quite exasperated look at belittling his capability of judgment to maintain the ship out of obvious danger. "Indeed. It would appear highly prudent to restrain from approximation of the ship to a galactic barrier." He said, once again, not quite sarcastically.

Kirk grinned and left after Sulu.

* * *

Captain Kirk checked operability of all the new fighter ships and made a transfer of all available information about Romulans to their systems. It wasn't much, but it was the best he could do. If someone can do this well, it's Sulu. He could pilot any kind of ship excellently and he was good with tactics, too.

Being so close to the barrier that could send their systems to hell as easily as it could make them die, if they just came nearer to its deadly influence, Kirk was pretty tensed up all the time. He really wanted to get out of here as soon as he could. But he couldn't let it show. His crew was scared – he could see it in the anxious precision of everything they have done – and they needed him, they needed to see the certainty and calmness his Vulcan officer was so much better in projecting than Kirk. They needed him and he needed Spock.

* * *

Sulu picked his team in no time, aware they couldn't waste time. The farer the enemy ship would get, the lower was a probability they would trace it up. Every single member of the team crammed himself into a tight space of his own fighter ship. Without any special preparation they launched, trusting that these hyper-modern models of starfighters were their best chance.

On their way along a calculated trajectory of the Romulan ship, they left Enterprise behind, in a whirl of a warp tunnel. The starfighters were fast and easy to manipulate. They still had a good chance to catch them. Sulu let a computer to play over the records about Romulans for him and directed it through complementary questions. He had to know everything that could give them an advantage in the upcoming fight.

After few hours of flight, Sulu's head was full of information about Romulans. He checked their course once again and stopped the never ending flow of information from computer. He was starting to get tired and that wasn't good. He let himself focus only on piloting the fighter for a while, which made him relaxed. He let his thoughts wander in different directions. He didn't intended it, but he remembered a call with his sister and he couldn't help it, but start to think about it.

What if Chekov… No, that was just ridiculous. Sulu couldn't remember a single time that would indicate that Chekov might have some ulterior motives with him. He was simply a friend. A very close friend. Chekov surely would show him, if he felt… But then again – no. It was a nonsense to even think about it. Not that this was a good time to deal with this anyway. Sulu activated the Romulans info narration again.

* * *

Sulu and his special team were just cruising through asteroid field nearby a two planetary system, when their sensors hit the Romulans' ship. That was a good luck. Sulu ordered all fighter ships to sink back among the floating pieces of stone, where their small-sized vessels easily got lost from a sight. He let his unit to turn out the engines and "float" in direction of the enemy ship. If they had Enterprise they could negotiate or intimidate, but like this a moment of surprise was the only thing they had. In the end, Romulan ship's sensors were bound to detect them. It was only a matter of how close they will make it towards the ship so that they would achieve a better position that was necessary for eliminating of crucial systems of the ship by phaser shots.

They sailed in complete silence, only their computer consoles signalizing incoming data by quiet beeping. They were really close, the ships sensors had to register them any moment, but yet, if they could get a little bit closer, it would be better.

And suddenly one ship got aimed on and before a pilot could change its position one bit, the lightening blast from Romulans' phase cannon smashed it and what hasn't evaporated from the small vessel right away, exploded in a million small shreds.

"Now! Move!" Sulu screamed into his communication unit.

All the pilots of starfighters kicked up their engines up to full power and split up, taking seemingly random directions in an effort to aim their weaponry on the weak spots of Romulan ship. Main sensor, side phase cannon, shield generator, … They need to get main phase cannon before it gets them down. Sulu and lieutenant Hanson took turns in attempts to hit it in a crazy whirl of manoeuvers, while trying to escape its fatal blasts.

This wont's work, it will get them before they find the right position to fire. "Hanson, prepare." Sulu drove his fighter directly to the phase cannon. The weapon blasts focused solely at him, since he became the most acute thread. The starfighter was slim and he took into a rotation, so that it was more difficult for the phase cannon to lock at him. He alternated the direction of rotation every second, dodging a phase beam to sides. Hanson followed from another angle, trying to load the Romulan ship's phase cannon with all he got. But his phaser was too weak and most of the rockets just disappeared in plasmatic energy of main phase cannon's blasts.

"It's not working!" Hanson reported.

"Then try something else!" Sulu insisted exasperatedly as he was too busy dodging phase blasts to maintain a conversation. For him, there was only way out of this now. He had to get close enough to… As he got closer and closer, like a projectile shot from a gun, Sulu's fighter ship was becoming easier to hit. When it almost looked, he will hit the phase cannon with his own ship, he triggered backwards drive and made a very tight loop, sliding just few meters from Romulan ship's surface, out of the angle of the phase cannon. As the phase cannon got to its limit position, it revealed a weaker point of its joint and Hanson, who still followed closely after Sulu hit it with a spray of small darts that got in every small gap before it exploded in a fast sequence of detonations that totally destroyed their target. Hanson flew through a short flash of flames and shrapnels left from the explosion. His fighter ship got scratched at surface, but else it was alright.

Some of Sulu's controls went red as he also got some superficial damage on his hazardous way to phase cannon. His communication transmission was not working. 'First thing first.' he thought and encircled the enemy's ship, looking for a weak spot. When he found what seemed like a place worth to try, he froze it with special pulse system the starfighter was equipped with, adding explosive darts in a second turn. He signalized with xenon scout reflectors to rest of his team. Fortunately, they understood and one after another supported a damage of the weak spot with their own small but piercing through darts.

The Romulan ship started its engines, but before the engines generated enough power, the fragiled wing of the ship cracked and split from a hull. The engines went off – they couldn't jump with such a damage, it would tear the ship apart.

All that was left was to send few phaser blasts in the disclosed area to destroy the ship for once and for all. The Romulans should have been harmless by now, but Sulu learnt to not bet on such things. He started to position the fighter to have a clear target. When he was at the spot he hesitated.

Suddenly, an excruciating headache began to thump like hammers in his head. It was like thousands needles throbbing from inside to his eyes and ears. He couldn't see and their ears got filled with hum. He stopped breathing in seizure of pain and pressed his palms to his temples in vain attempt to ease the pain. In a haze if pain he managed to gather enough consciousness that thought of Romulans flashed through his mind. The reason of this must have been Romulans.

Blindly, he reached for the console before him. "Computer" He pushed the words through gritted teeth, breathing heavily. "con- er, … aim phaser…" God, this will kill him before he could do something about it. "Previous tar-get. Full power…" Squinting, Sulu tried to lock the manual control into a correct position. Once he finally heard a silent beep and marginally was aware of visual sign of phase cannon locking onto its target, he pressed a trigger.

For a second nothing happened and the only think he perceived was this all-consuming pain. And then, as suddenly as it came, it vanished. It was like to fall in a heap of feathers. It was so wonderful feeling that he would laugh, if he wasn't so damn exhausted. He watched the remains of Romulan ship scattered into milliard of pieces. In that moment he thought that he has never seen such a beautiful thing in his whole life. As a sweat that soaked his uniform during the pain attack grew colder, Sulu shivered. He set the temperature of surrounding to higher degree and then started to communicate with the rest of his team by set light signals.

The loss hasn't been so bad. They lost Thompson in the first attack and Medrik, when a pain attack disabled all pilots. Medrik was on a collision course with the Romulan ship when it started and he didn't managed to change it. Sulu lost his communication transmitter and Hanson had abraded surface, but that was all. It wasn't what Sulu was hoping for, but it was better than what he expected it to be. They lost a lot of power, though, so they had to get back at lower warp.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notification: If you like my work, read also "One Page of Life", whi****ch I also post tonight. Now enjoy another chapter ;)  
**

* * *

When they returned, Spock welcomed them aboard. He listened up a report intently. And he made some notes at possibly extra sensory perception abilities of the Romulans. That's not what would come to one's mind, but it made a sense.

Their mission was successful. They won. Sulu never expected Spock to be happy or enthusiastic or any other display of emotions from a first officer, but he expected that by the rest of the crew. So when he saw their small smiles on rather gloomy faces, he knew something was wrong.

"You are dismissed. Take a proper rest, Mr. Sulu." Spock relieved him out of duty.

"Mr. Spock, commander. What happened here, sir?" Sulu maintained at the spot and questioned his superior, looking persistently.

"We have a situation here." Uhura spoke up. Spock shot her a look.

"Lieutenant." He admonished her.

"Spock, just tell him." A plead came in return.

Spock stared at her for a moment, his look angry on the obvious disobedience and lack of formality in the way she addressed him despite being in an active duty at the bridge. Then his look shifted to Sulu. "I believe doctor McCoy will offer you more accurate explanation. You shall find him in a sickbay laboratory."

* * *

"What?!" Sulu pushed up on his hands and straightened, taking a step back from a table he was just bending over a second ago. He frowned in ugly premonition that what McCoy told him might not be just a bunch of crap but true.

"You said they got some kind of Romulan disease?" He hit on a doctor again.

"Not Romulan disease, but a disease that was brought aboard by Romulans." McCoy scowled. "It spread through ventilation system before first symptoms showed."

"And there's no cure." Sulu wanted to clarify.

"So far." McCoy grumbled.

* * *

As Sulu got to know, when he left with his team to search for escaping Romulan ship, most of the technical support engineers under Scotty's supervision beamed to Prudence, together with captain Kirk and Chekov, to help repair the ship. But then, symptoms of an unknown disease emerged. Everybody who beamed there had to stay aboard Prudence, so that the infection won't spread to Enterprise as well. And now, all medical staff from both ships was trying to find out how to beat it. After two days of research there were still no results.

After few moments of consideration Sulu broached the conversation again.

"If it was from the Romulans, maybe I could return to where we destroyed their ship and try to find something that could help?" Sulu suggested helplessly.

"You're aware that would be of no use, Mr. Sulu." Spock entered the sickbay. "If anything has been preserved from explosion of the ship, then it's already on its way to a deep space."

Sulu knew that, but he wished there was something he could do.

"I suggest you take a proper rest, first, lieutenant. And then join a science department to help chief medical officer to find out the cure or become an acting commander of Enterprise, while I would join the science department myself."

That sounded reasonable. Sulu nodded. His field trip took him almost three days and he hasn't had many opportunities to sleep during it.

When he was leaving, Spock was talking to McCoy in a low voice.

"Dammit, man!" he heard a doctor to scream. Sulu looked over his shoulder and saw McCoy to talk into a communicator he took from Spock. "You're a CMO of that ship. You have to take care of yourself first. If we figure out the treat, you're the one who has to apply it. You're the one who has to take care of the crew!" The sickbay door closed behind Sulu.

Before he lied down on his bed, Sulu decided to call Chekov. He opened his communicator and sent out a connecting signal.

"Chekov?" he asked when he heard the other side to pick up.

"Sulu?" Chekov asked happily.

"How are you doing?" Sulu worried.

"I hawe been betterr beforr. Good to hier yu're alrright. How did yorr mission go?"

"We've been successful. The ship is destroyed."

"Wee heard zat frrom commandrr Spock."

"Yeah. I'll tell you more later. I just returned and I need to get some sleep." Sulu yawned. "But tell me how do you feel. Are you also sick?"

"Wee all arr. I reperr fesility in ze sickbay. Some engineerrz don't want to do zat, becauze ze most seriouz caesiz arr zere, but it doezn't metterr. Ewerrybody iz sick hierr." Sulu closed his eyes and Chekov continued. "It iz like flu. But I am alrright. People from Enterrprize got it laetr, so wee'rre bettrr zan zis ship's crru."

* * *

Sulu was really tired, so he felt asleep quite fast. He hasn't slept all that long, though. When he entered the bridge, Spock was sitting in a command chair. He looked tired. Sulu has never seen a Vulcan tired. When he noticed Sulu, the tiredness got lost. Spock exchanged his post with Sulu, noting he is going to continue a search through computer's library.

Later on, Uhura came to take the conn. She did the same thing as Sulu, the same thing Spock must have been doing, too. She pulled out her PADD to continue the research. They were sitting in a command chair, guarding a ship in case another Romulans would show up and tried their best to use the time that was left to safe a part of their crew along with whole crew of another ship.

The time was running fast and it was too long since any of them had a proper rest. More serious symptoms have been reported and they could have been pretty sure that in time, this will become a question of life or death.

* * *

Chekov helped with engines until the infection broke out. Then there were tricorders and another diagnostic device that needed to be repaired. So he helped with it. Chekov wasn't basically an engineer, so it was for the best, if he took side tasks.

First, when they found out about the disease and a fact that it has infected everybody aboard Prudence, they were disturbed. But there were still two ships that could offer fully assistance in solving the problem. It was like that until sickness manifested at some people in rather serious way. The patients were feverish, their bodies started to ache and they were weak. It was hard to watch those people in such poor state, see them being in pain, without ability to do anything about it and knowing that soon you will be at their place, in the same pain. CMOs already defined what was obvious – that if the infected people won't get a treat soon, they will die. Sometimes, things were just a matter of time.

Captain Kirk and captain Sansburry tried their best to prevent a panic to spread among both crews. They interrogated persons who were at a place, when small container left by Romulans got opened and the deadly disease spread from it. Since those people were first in contact with it, they were first to be taken care of in a sickbay, too. Even if they were to persecute them, it won't help anything.

Of course, a high command of the ships also considered seeking a help elsewhere. However, they were too far from any inhabited world, too far for even a long-distance connection and they wouldn't make it in time even if the warp engines of Prudence miraculously revived on the spot. The only thing they could do was to continue their effort to find a cure among things they got.

As a sickbay filled with more and more sick people, Chekov was more a hindrance than useful at now crowded place, so he moved over to main engineering again. The engineers were also ill, but kept working. Once they will be out of this, they will need a ship with functional engines. It kept them occupied, it kept them hoping.

Most of the communication between Enterprise and Prudence was carried out through Spock and captain Kirk. They exchanged and discussed all information the other side needed to know. However, the other communication channels haven't been blocked. Just nobody had a reason or time to call the other side. Chekov was missing Enterprise, its crew. Both Kirk and Scotty were way too busy to talk with him. Chekov knew Sulu and the others aboard Enterprise were busy, too. So he kept repairing broken consoles and replacing defective components in short-circuits, until he was rather lying on the floor, propped against one of the consoles and stubbornly worked on drives and other small parts he could take off and hold in his hands placed in his lap.

His communicator signalized an incoming call.

"Sulu?"

* * *

Sulu kept the furious pace in search despite of lack of sleep. He spent every minute browsing through catalogues of terrestrial and extraterrestrial plants, using his botanical skill to suggest species that were worth to try. He was sending those to sickbay laboratory and got reports about a progress of the disease in exchange. When he stopped by in a sickbay late that night, he received only an irritated reaction from McCoy's side. Main nurse, who observed the doctor worriedly, came closer to Sulu.

"You shouldn't be like that." She told Sulu. "Dr. McCoy is too stubborn to get a rest and he would never forgive me, if I doped him. Well, he's our biggest hope." She looked at a doctor protectively, sympathy and admiration mirroring in her face. "You should get some sleep. There's no profit from overloading oneself. You'll be more capable, when you're not exhausted." She recommended to him. She hesitated. " If you want to, I can gie you something to help you fall asleep." She glanced at him.

"No… I'll be OK." He declined politely.

Maybe she was right, he should get at least a shower before he continues.

* * *

After a shower, Sulu remained in his quarters. He sat in front of computer access console and restored his attempts to find answers.

'Not this. Not that. No. No. No!" he slammed his fist against an edge of access console. There had to be a solution, there must have been something they've missed!

He picked up his comm and called Chekov.

"Sulu?" A tired voice sounded from a loud-speaker.

"Chekov. That container the infection originated to spread from, did you look at it?"

"It waz seerrged thru thorrogly. Zere iz nothin' on it."

Sulu paced over his room, roaming with his look around as he forced his tired brain cells to work.

"There must be something we missed. Don't worry, we'll figure it out." Sulu reassured Chekov eagerly.

"I don't think so." Chekov replied.

Sulu leaned on a wall. "No." His voice turned to calm and serious one. He slid down to sit on a floor as he felt his knees trembling. "We'll find something. I promise." He said, convincing both of them, even though he couldn't see a way out of this misery. He had nothing more to say, but he didn't want to hang up yet. This might be a last time he talks with his friend.

"Yu said yu will tell me about ze surrfing competition and about yorr little sisterz sometime." Chekov paused and Sulu could hear him to swallow exhaustedly. "I think, could yu tell me about it now?"

Sulu didn't reply for a moment, gazing forward he searched for strength to reign his voice.

"Sure." He broke himself from dazing out. "I can tell you about that." He said in a warm tone that contained only slight hint of weariness.

"So, when I was ten…" he started to describe his first experience with a surfing board and high San Francisco's waves. Going through all those happy and exciting days full of childhood adventures, his days of being a big brother to his little sisters who were adult now, but were fragile cute girls back then – that all made it a lot easier – to not think about that Chekov is dying on the other side of the connection now. If they would make it out of this, Sulu was sure he will take Chekov surfing.

At the beginning, Chekov tried to react, saying things like "Oh, zat must hawe been grreit." He had to be really trying, but he couldn't fool Sulu with the enthusiastic tone lacking his usual energy. In time, the notes were less frequent and then stopped entirely. Maybe he didn't want to disturb Sulu as he listened intently. But more probably he was just too tired to talk. That thought made Sulu feel like there was a stone in his stomach.

Carrying on with the story, Sulu was suddenly interrupted by a gasp of pain on Chekov's side. He braced himself and didn't comment on that. He just blinked as his eyes became wet.

"And so she went to a shrine, all dressed up in a beautiful kimono." Sulu continued and a tear coming down his cheek didn't belong to a memory of his sister.


	11. Chapter 11

**Note: First, let me remind you - this is not exactly innocent fiction as you could already say from its rating. Just saying ;-) A now there's a very IMPORTANT THING: this is a censored version. There's also a fully explicit one, being uploaded on my AO3 account at the same time as here. So if you're a little bit perverted like me (or not just a little bit), I recommend for the next chapters **** checking out **that one. And if you're not... How it comes you even read a slash fiction? :D No, no... Not really. Anyway, this in not innocent, but more decent version for those who like to take it easy. Love you.  


**(full version: archiveofourown, title: Sheer Borderline, author: Chuluchan)**

* * *

Sulu was teaching Chekov surfing. They were on a beach near San Francisco, it was sunny, but windy day and waves were high.

They just spent almost two hours in water. Sulu was trying some tricks after Chekov quit and left to sandy beach to get a break. Sulu followed him soon after, there was no point in overdoing this, since he felt his muscles were starting to hurt and weaken.

Sulu dropped his board on warm sand, picked up a T-shirt and pulled it over his head to prevent his skin from sunburn. Then he crouched and hooked his arm around Chekov's shoulders. Chekov sitting tiredly, elbows on his knees, and he was looking at the ocean.

"Hey, you. How did you enjoy that?" Sulu asked playfully. He squeezed Chekov's shoulder friendly and then let him be and lied on his back just behind him.

"It waz grreit." Curly boy's lips smiled when he turned to Sulu.

"You wanna tell me surfing's something they invented in Russia?" Sulu laughed at their internal joke.

"I am surre zey did." Chekov teased with a smug expression, while pinning Sulu down by resting his weight on a hand he used to grasp Sulu's shoulder.

"Its origin's in Polynesia, but the modern one's definitely from a California coast. In Russia, your butt would freeze off!" Sulu taunted with a vicious smirk, pulled Chekov down by the other arm than was pinning him, he shifted around and in a split of second he was the one pinning down the other, straddled him, his legs around Chekov's hips as a natural result of a fight training. Sulu grinned victoriously. "Gotcha."

To his surprise, Chekov blushed, he looked away. Avoiding Sulu's look Chekov darted with his eyes from place to place nervously. Sulu looked at him for a moment, contemplating without a single move. Then, he bent closer which made startled Chekov return his eyes back to Sulu. Sulu let Chekov's hand and used his palms to cradle Chekov's cheek bones as he kissed him. He felt a kind of familiar clutch of Chekov's fingers on his T-shirt nearby his abs. That was totally turning him on. Sulu closed his eyes and lifted a bit and their lips parted.

All of sudden, the cheeks under his fingers were cold as an ice. He opened his eyes and Chekov's face was very pale and blank, his eyes were closed. Sulu's eyes widened in shock as he pushed himself off. Chekov's hands weren't clutching him anymore. He laid there without life, dressed in his Starfleet uniform. The same he had on himself, Sulu realized. Suddenly he knew. Chekov was dead and all that was just his imagination… A hammer of fright struck him hard. He felt an urgent rush of nausea. He focused on the man laying cold in his hands once again. 'No… This couldn't happen. It's WRONG.' His chest was so tight he couldn't even took in a breath.

* * *

Gasping for an air, Sulu sat up breaking away from a nightmare. It took him a moment to anchor himself in reality, realizing he's still lying on the floor, where he had to fall asleep after the long and emotionally stressful call with Chekov. He reached for his comm that lied on a floor not far from him and crawled up on his feet.

Every muscle in his body was aching. He went to a bathroom and threw up into a toilet. Then he forced himself to undress and take a cold shower. He was soaked with sweat, feeling a strange mix of arousal and nausea cramping his stomach. Hopefully, cold water would wash it all away and wake him up a bit.

Luckily, the shower worked and allowed Sulu to skip a coffee he else would have needed, but of which he wasn't sure he could keep it in his stomach. It was still early, so he aimed to a sickbay first, before he will have to get to a bridge.

McCoy way sitting there, hunched over a microscope, taking down notes with excessively red eyes and a big dark circles under them. He was sipping a coffee from his mug constantly.

"Doctor?" Sulu distracted him and made McCoy's face to turn to him. Doctor's eyes were filled with uncertainty as he was considering what to say to young lieutenant.

"I haven't found anything yet." The doctor settled on with a dark expression, taking a guilt of failure on himself, though a whole research team was working on it.

Sulu frowned. He gave a short nod and turned to leave. He headed to bridge, passing by Uhura at the entrance door. Sulu barely acknowledged her presence, sunk in his worries. This thread was so intimidating. Few weeks ago, he was fighting with Chekov's past fear, literally. And it haven't been much more than month since he fought to save people because of some stupid lizards, but… That was something he could do. All he could do now was just waiting for fate's judgment and hope for a miracle to occur. That was devastating.

As he replayed these thoughts, he was suddenly struck by an idea. He froze in a middle of next step, turned on a heel and flied back to sickbay. As he rushed in, he startled McCoy, Uhura and few science assistants.

"The lizard!" Sulu exclaimed.

"What?" McCoy's eyebrows met as he tried to figure out what Sulu could have meant.

"The lizard we got on Mirena's supposed to have fabulous healing capabilities!" Sulu blurted out as fast as he caught his breath.

Uhura's expression changed from confused to wary. "No, you can't –" she started menacingly.

"The hell we DO that." McCoy smirked with a devilish look, already unstoppable in his actions. Uhura sensed it and gave up on what she thought of as a crucial point of preservation of good relations with a whole population of planet Mirena.

* * *

Spock, Sulu and McCoy gathered in a transporter room.

"I got the vaccines. It isn't the lizard itself that can safe them, but the way its body works got me to realize few things." McCoy explained vigorously, while he prepared to beam aboard Prudence.

"By 'lizard' you mean a sacred animal of Mirena planet's inhabitants, which is simultaneously highly prized for being an important element of Federation's relationship with the inhabitants?" Spock implied with only slightly raised eyebrow.

"I didn't kill it!" McCoy grumbled, defending himself. "Anyway," He continued. "Their bodies are just made to think they are sick. That thing is deadly by fooling the body. That's why we couldn't find anything."

"So?" Sulu prodded.

"All we have to do is to convince the body that it's otherwise. I have a nice sample of Andorian pertussis with me. It will take over a control of their neural system for time needed to get rid of the original problem. Well, at least it should." McCoy corrected himself, glancing at Spock.

"It would be more prudent to send somebody else than you, doctor. Taking in you are momentarily unexpendable and your skills will be needed, if a result's not satisfactory, I suggest sending somebody else aboard Prudence." Spock said, his hands clasped behind his back.

"As I said, I'll go by myself. I can't push somebody into doing this. And I won't let anybody to take on the consequences, if this method's a failure. Their sickbay personnel is off, so I go." He eyed first commander solemnly. Spock nodded slightly.

Sulu just wanted to volunteer himself, but he felt that was not what would be appreciated or acknowledged at the moment. McCoy prepared at a transporter pad.

"Many of the engineers stayed in engine room." Sulu noted. "Don't forget to pay them a visit, too."

"I know." McCoy made a not-thrilled face. "Alright. Beam me there."

"Energizing." An officer at an operating console said and a stream of glittering energy shrouded McCoy and he has disappeared.

All that was left now was to wait. If it wasn't for Starfleet officer drill, Sulu couldn't do anything, being too obsessed to actually focus on something else. However, he was used to deal with emotional stress and to work effectively despite being under a pressure. So he had done everything he left out during a search for a cure. One task after another, he completed them precisely.

* * *

"The cure works." – those were the most precious words, announced by a McCoy's voice ship-wide through intercom. He called from Prudence and Uhura made the call public. A worry that seized Sulu's heart as well as hearts of all the crew broke apart. He wished to hear this so badly, they all wished. And now a wave of gratitude took him to a verge of tears.

After few hours, Uhura announced that Enterprise's crew is coming back, since the infection is not contagious anymore. Sulu met Spock in a hallway as they headed to welcome them aboard. When they entered a transporter room, a sight of saved persons accompanied and taken care of by Enterprise chief medical officer – their savior – was waiting for them. In the moment of Spock's and Sulu's appearance, all heads turned to them, smile on each face. They were alive.

Sulu's and Chekov's eyes met. Their merry expressions went still and for a moment the look became very intense, more than it has ever been before. Sulu ached to break into a run to Chekov, hug him tight and never let go. But that was not possibly a thing two male high-ranking Starfleet officers could do. It hurt to see a very short flash of disappointment on Chekov's face.

Sulu was so consumed by his effort to hold himself back he barely noticed that even Spock was broadcasting an aura of contentment and he practically stood on tip toes as he inclined to a captain. When Uhura came in, she made her way between Spock and Sulu and went to hug a captain, for which she obtained a rascally smirk with typical Kirk's comment. "Oh, babe. I know you missed me, but let's leave this for the evening." He winked at her. She rolled her eyes on that, but didn't seemed to be bothered at all, though, since she continued to smile warmly and moved to hug Chekov as well. That was welcomed and sincerely reciprocated.

"Are you alright?" Uhura asked him protectively.

"Zat waz notting I couldn't haendle. We, Russianz, hawe an irron constituution."

She smiled and looked for chief engineer. "Where's Scotty?"

"He said he'll finish with the warp engines first." Kirk informed her.

"I guess we should get goin'." McCoy interrupted them, his hand friendly resting on captain Kirk's shoulder.

"Yes. Let's go and be done with this. I'm starving." Captain decided himself.

* * *

They needed to finish up with the procedures in a sickbay, what took them another few hours, but since they were not under pressure anymore, the time passed rather quickly. By the end, when everything was clear and there were only simple tasks left to do, the doctor was sleeping along with his less lucky patients on one of the biobeds. Lacking a high level of adrenaline, caffeine, a sense for responsibility and a simple need that kept him up during this whole almost four-days long horror marathon, he finally let his body to subdue to its basic physiological needs. The luckier patients left sickbay and aimed for their quarters to take additional rest. So did Chekov. Sulu was just next to him all the time from a moment they left a transporter room and now they walked side by side towards Chekov's quarters.

As Sulu maintained a short distance between the two of them, avoiding any actual contact, he started to think. He was never so conscious about a physical proximity between Chekov and him before. Once he fully realized that Chekov was… That he could be Chekov's subject of interest in other way than he assumed before, the thought messed him up. After all that happened on their way to Ardana, after a call with his sister Yuki, after _that_ weird dream, he had to deeper consider a nature of his relationship with Chekov. This young navigator cared about him as no one has before and also the other way, Sulu never cared about anybody as much as about Chekov. But that didn't defined whether their relationship was a platonic friendship or if there was expected something more. What if, meanwhile Sulu have seen Chekov always as a best friend, Chekov didn't, but surrendered to Sulu's needs? Was he content to go on like this and let Sulu to be blind towards his feelings forever? That possibility was really disturbing. And what if Sulu just thought too high of himself and Chekov was simply never interested in him that way? What if Sulu was the one whose fantasies went wild where they never should have gone? – All these questions burned in back of his head. He never gave a damn about it, until his own subconscious showed him the possibility. A flash of a memory of the dream made him imagine the kiss again. He swallowed hard.

"Would you mind to join me in my quarters?" Sulu asked.

"Ah, no. Of courrz, letz go." Chekov replied easily, though without his usual energy. He followed Sulu, who seemed to be a bit off, almost absent minded, but was pacing firmly to his room.

In a turbolift, Sulu, still focused on an imaginary spot in air in front of him, asked "What do you want from me?", wondering quietly.

"What yu mean by zat?" Chekov tried to make it clear, but his question has been left without an answer.

* * *

As they entered Sulu's quarters and door shut behind Chekov, Sulu turned to him, his look telling Chekov it's not the right time to start casual talk about whatever he was just about to say. Sulu stepped closer, restraining Chekov from moving further and locked his eyes with the younger man's.

"I don't want to miss this chance." He said almost inaudibly. Then, he leaned closer and briefly glancing on Chekov's lips he pressed a kiss on them. His heart beat so aloud he wondered if Chekov could hear it.

Young Russian's eyes widened and it took him a moment to break the freeze he has found himself in. As Sulu was backing, his eyes wandering around, already thinking of an apology, he reached out to seal their lips again.

Sulu allowed the kiss to deepen, parting his lips to taste each other's mouth. As the kiss became less reserved in favor of wanting, Chekov leaned in and pressed his body against Sulu's slender one. When Sulu felt a proof of Chekov's arousal against his thigh, he swallowed hard.

"It's a first time I am doing this with guy." He explained anxiously. "So, let's take it slowly, please."

"Yez, of courrz." Chekov smiled lightly and huffed against Sulu's mouth, then leaned in to kiss him again and Sulu hesitantly placed his hands on Chekov's back.

Chekov was so warm, so real, so alive. Sulu broke the kiss and squeezed Chekov tightly.

"Missed you so much." His voice got husky, his yes blinking as uncalled for moisture irritated them.

* * *

**If you liked it, do not forget to tell me! Thank you for reading. Ch **


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